ANYONE planning to give Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty a kiss was warned to keep their distance yesterday.
In Melbourne to promote her new film, Metro, a jetlagged Shetty said she was tired of talking about a “trivial and insignificant” kiss on the cheek from Richard Gere and urged fans to stay back as she had a terrible cold.
The headline-grabbing Shetty has starred in more than 30 films but is now better known for a supposedly inappropriate public kiss from Gere and the UK Celebrity Big Brother race row.
Shetty said she was shocked that three pecks on the cheek from the Hollywood star at an event to promote AIDS awareness had caused such an international stir.
Effigies of Shetty have been burned by angry hordes in India and an arrest warrant issued by a judge in Jaipur for both stars for violating obscenity laws.
“It makes my country look stupid,” she said.
“It’s because of things like this that people think of India as just burning effigies, snake charmers and elephants.
“One person made a complaint about it to further his own political agenda and then others burned effigies to get political mileage and it has all come at my cost and Richard’s cost.
“Most people in India do not care. They are very sensible, modern people.
“Then there are these people on the lunatic fringe who burn effigies. This is not what normal people in India do.”
One controversy Shetty is less disparaging about was her experience in the UK Big Brother House where she was called a “dog” and a “Paki” by her fellow celebrities.
“I think it was a positive thing in the end because it made people more aware about racism,” she said. “I do not regret it at all.”
Shetty said she was not keen to repeat her experience and had turned down offers from Network Ten to visit the current Australian housemates.
She said she knew she had made the right decision after watching an episode of the show.
Further, she’d read about the furore over producers making a housemate who had miscarried 18 months ago look after a fake baby.
“I am only here for two days and 13 hours, so there is no time to go in,” she said.
“Besides I have already done it once, I do not need to do it again.”
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Shilpa is sensible, sensational, and superlative. Let’s hope she represents the new Indian woman.