Gere kisses plunge Shilpa into row

CELEBRITY Big Brother star Shilpa Shetty has been swept up in controversy again — this time after being kissed by Richard Gere.

The furore erupted when Hollywood actor Gere, 57, held the Bollywood star, 31, in his arms and kissed her repeatedly on the cheeks as part of an AIDS-awareness event.

Now angry crowds in India, where public displays of affection are largely taboo, have begun burning effigies of the US star while chanting “Down with Shilpa Shetty”.

Shetty’s fame rocketed in Britain when she won Celebrity Big Brother, thanks to her fight back against bullies Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara.

Then Chancellor Gordon Brown was plunged into the race row crisis during his visit to India, where protesters burned effigies of the Channel 4 show’s producers.

In the latest controversy, individuals in Mumbai belonging to the right-wing Hindu nationalist group Shiv Sena set fire to images of Shetty and beat burning effigies of Gere with sticks.

Protests also erupted in other cities, including Varanasi, Hinduism’s holiest city, and in the northern town of Meerut, where crowds also chanted “Down with Shilpa Shetty”.

The pair appeared at a press conference yesterday in New Delhi to highlight the HIV and AIDS epidemic among India’s truck drivers. Yesterday, photographs of Gere embracing Shetty and kissing her on the cheek were printed on the front pages of several Indian newspapers.