Richard Gere's kiss continues to haunt Shilpa

By: Raymond Ronamai
Thursday, September 27, 2007

It's not easy to be famous. Lots of controversies have been dogging actress Shilpa Shetty ever since she won Celebrity Big Brother contest early this year. This time, she experienced something unpleasant and embarrassing at the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport because of her kiss with Hollywood actor Richard Gere a few months ago.

The actress reached the airport to catch the flight to Germany, where her West End musical Miss Bollywood will be premiered this weekend. To her surprise, the immigration officials at the airport spoke rudely to her, telling that she had no clearance order from the court to travel abroad. But the truth is that the Supreme Court had given her permission to go abroad.

The actress was embarrassed by the incident and that too in front of her dance troupe that includes 50 British and Russian dancers and technicians. “I could understand something like this if I'd committed a criminal offense. But what was my offense, when I'm just an actor, going to perform a musical on foreign land, representing my country. I don't need to be treated like this in my own country! It's terrible! It's really shocking," said the actress. Now, she is planning to take necessary action against the officials for their offensive behaviour after consulting her lawyer.

Shilpa's kiss with Richard at an AIDS awareness programme invited lots of uproar in India and some even went to the extent of filing cases against them. A court in Alwar district of Rajasthan issued a 'look-out notice" for Shilpa at various airports, not allowing her to go abroad until the case against her was cleared. However, the Supreme Court quashed the Alwar court order and gave her permission to travel abroad.