Richard Gere: Caught Between Kiss & Indian Truckers
Gere (Left) kisses Shetty during an AIDS awareness programme in New Delhi April 15, 2007. (REUTERS/Tanushree Punwani)
Thousands of truckers cheered wildly as American actor Richard Gere kissed (Indian) actress Shilpa Shetty on her cheeks during an event to promote safe sex and raise AIDS awareness among a high-risk group, writes Prithwish Ganguly of the Reuters.
“Hollywood star Gere had joined Shetty, the winner of ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ reality TV show in Britain this year, in an anti-AIDS drive among truckers in India, the country with the world’s largest number of people living with HIV.
” ‘No condom, no sex,’ 58-year-old Gere shouted in Hindi to thousands of truck drivers who roared his words back in unison at a dusty fairground late on Sunday. They whooped with delight and whistled loudly as Gere swooped down on a visibly delighted Shetty to kiss her…
(But this Gere-Shetty kiss has led to protests in the holy city of Varanasi where Shetty fans burnt Gere’s effigy.)
(Now there is a demand to arrest Richard Gere.)
“India has around 5.7 million people living with the virus, according to the United Nations, and thousands of truckers are HIV-positive…” (To read my earlier post India’s Major ‘War’: Saving Kids from HIV, AIDS pl click here…)
Earlier, Richard Gere, along with over 125 scientists, physicians and religious scholars from across the world, participated in a five-day conference on ‘Mind and Life’ at Dharamsala, the Himalayan abode of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in India.
The meet focused on the issues and challenges highlighted in Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s book, ‘The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality.’
27 Responses to “Richard Gere: Caught Between Kiss & Indian Truckers”
Five point Seven Million People Swaraaj?! My God they ought to quarantine the state of India for heavens sake!
I don’t know anything about Indian culture, but she doesn’t look visibly delighted to me. Maybe she’s delighted that it wasn’t Neil Young mauling her. But isn’t Gere getting a little long in the tooth for this sort of thing?
I am an Indian. All I can say is “Hypocrisy Thy Name Is India”! Indians can do anything nasty in Bollywood, but God forbid if others did it!
Richard Gere, one of the most spiritual and decent actors on television, is maligned by a bunch of ignorant people. Instead of understanding and addressing the depth of the problem of unsafe rampant sex in India which has led to millions of HIV positive men and women – they go after the easy target…It’s a shame their target was a person who was obviously joking and who is actually trying to help.
Richard Gere is much respected in India. It appears to me that some (a handful of) hoodlums have made it a issue because it gets them ‘good press’. And the media these days just pounces on ‘sensational’ bits and gets hysterical with rival channels and newspapers trying to out do each other.
People are getting accustomed to this aberration of the media. They just overlook it and soon it is back to normal.
However, the photograph above is bit awkward (trust an enterprising Reuters photographer to capture the moment).
I’m sure I’ve seen scenes like that in Indian films. Theres even outcry at Elizabeth Hurley marrying that Indian man. I thinks this is just a case of a racially homogeneous (excluding religion) country being hostile towards a foreigner.
And what is with Indians and Arabs always burning effigies?
[...] Apr 17th, 2007 by mvdg It seems that Richard Gere caused quite stir in India: during an AIDS awareness program in New Delhi he kissed Indian superstar Shilpa Shetty. Hindus are protesting, burning effigies of Gere, burning photos of Shetty and demanding an apology of the latter and threatening to move her movies. [...]
this outcry is so crazy. Just drive down the new flyover at Reclaimaition Bandra and look at all the hugging and kissing going on with the Indian youth. And what of the youths at the pubs and lounges indulging in the latest trend of the dance form sensous salsas…. There is a huge probability that the daughter or the son of one of the guys who burnt effigies is indulging in this state of passion right there. Remeber …..When one points a finger at someone, there are four other fingers that point right back to you. Richard Gere is one of the most compassionate humans alive today….!!!! Please treat him with respect .
whenever I go to our favourite indian restaurant, they play bollywood videos on their huge plasma – - let me tell you, the videos dont leave anything to the imagination! and this is a family restaurant, for god’s sakes! my 16 year olds have to turn away to hide their embarrassment (because they’re with us, their old foggy parents).
i saw a couple of photos of her and… come on… who can blame Gere? Darn, she’s beautiful.
So what was wrong if Richard Gere kissing Shilpa as if this does not happen in Bollywood movies. To name the few, Karishma was kissed by Aamir Khan in Raja Hindustani, Ashwarya Rai, who will soon be Ashwarya Bachan was kissed by the handsome Hritik Roshan in Dhoom2 and probably many more. Nowadays is this what Bollywood is all about? Come on face the reality….
I totally agree with Shushma… Start burning Ashawarya and Hritik Roshans pictures now. The whole world has watched the stars kiss in Dhoom 2. Wow is that why Bachans have not invited Hrithik to the wedding?? I wonder
Look closely at the video. He grabs her, puts on hand on her waist, tries to bend her backward, and she resists even though she’s trying to keep a smiley face. Then he gets more forceful, plants one foot down firmly, lowers his hand onto her hip and this time exerts more force as she tries to wiggle her body out of his grip but she finally caves in. In fact, if you start looking from the beginning, it appears as though Gere was planning this thing from the beginning. His every step looks calculated except that he wasn’t counting on her resisting. To cover up the embarrassment, Richard kneels in front of her after the kiss to make it as though she is the diva. How utterly pathetic. This was definitely not by her consent even though being on the stage in front of a large audience, most people are going to make it look like this is all in fun and games. Richard… what were you doing?
Actually, Ms. Shetty seemed perfectly okay with it. Unbeknown to us she might (even as we speak) be nursing a grudge against Richard for not taking it further, and giving her a French kiss. We are never going to find that out, are we?
It’s definitely become a tempest (of sorts) in a teapot. I should think about the only people who are uber-cool with Richard having embraced Shilpa are Shilpa’s mum and Shilpa herself. The rest are either too jealous of Shilpa – having never themselves gotten a peck on the cheek from a sexy white man let alone a Hollywood celebrity or are brainwashed by the Hindustani Taleban movement now, in full bloom every which way you look.
Yes, and I can think of one other person who is biting her lip and probably is squirming in her hot pants – Ms. Parmeshwar G. who is known to be a sucker for Mr. Gere and likes clinging to him like a drenched shirt, whenever he’s in town.
[...] An Indian sculpture The Gere-Shetty kiss led to demonstrations in some parts of India. Is kissing an Indian an un-Indian act? Some researchers believe that kiss itself could very well be India’s contribution to the world!!! [...]
It would be Maha-interesting to note what would happen if an Indian celebrity in the manner of Salman Khan or even a lesser celeb such as, Manoj Bajpai were to do an impromptu Mika with Ms. Shilpa Shetty.
Something tells me she’d have probably pressed charges against him. But if it’s them foreigners, and English speaking ones at that, then all is forgiven.
People, don’t let’s forget we are talking about a nation that gave the world the manual of love making. If India is capable of producing a Kama Sutra we see no reason why we should now find it so difficult to digest what was clearly a staged embrace by Richard of a more than willing Shilpa.
Get a move on, people!
Jab miya bibi razi toh kya karega kazi period.
Well having read the issue I feel its sad that it takes a foreigner and somebody like Richard Gere to come to India to help with big issues here!Why should he ? There are enough issues going on in the States.We should be delighted that we have Mr.Geres support.So india be grateful that somebody cares!SD.
in my idea mr Richard didnt do a good thing that while shilpa giving a lecture for a HIV to kiss her infornt of the whole people and it is not the mistake of shilpa in this part shilpa is an annocent
thanks
Shilpa is probably kicking herself for not letting the “american giglo” kiss her…
I think people should understand that we are living in 21st century. There is nothing special happened between Mr Richard and Shilpa.
Does any one know “WHY THE INDIAN STALWARTS ARE NOT CARING TO COME FORWARD TO SOLVE THE TRUCKERS’ HIV/AIDS RELATED PROBLEMS?”
Paul
LOs Angeles, CA
It turned me on for sure – My gosh it’s hard to believe Shilpa not enjoying that. The only person I’d think would be flamingly bitter would be Gere’s wife. It was CLEARLY OBVIOUSLY that Gere was awaiting the moment to pounce on her. He started off for public approval and I’m sure in private would have approached her to put the ‘Kama Sutra’ in a full live color vision. The reason for their appearance had no correlation to what he did. It reminded me of what happened to Haley Berry at the oscars. Next time, “Gere, get an indian hotel!”
[...] Here’s more on the Hollywood movie star Richard Gere and Indian film star Shilpa Shetty who are embroiled in a controversy for kissing in public in India. [...]
This pisses me off.
Wasn’t Richard Gere there for an AIDS awareness, trying to help these scum-bags?
I have never been a racist, but now I hate these fucking weirdos. FUCK India!
That place is a shithole, filled with a bunch of dumb-ass, dot-headed idiots.
I feel what Richard Gere did was wrong, but, to put them in prison is just so fucking insane. I think that they should fuck Judge Dinesh Gupta in the ass with his own mallet. FUCK YOU India, president of India, Judge Dinesh Gupta and every other ignorant sand nigger that agrees with arresting these people. We should nuke that whole shitty country, right now! Anyway, I goota go, I am going to slice up an Indian holy cow and eat a hamburger.