The kiss planted by Hollywood star Richard Gere’s on Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty during an AIDS awareness programme has evoked strong protests in several cities. Shiv Sena activists stormed her film shoot in Mumbai with protesters describing the act as an attack on India’s cultural ethos. Activists, mostly of Hindu outfits, in Varanasi, Bhopal, Kanpur, Indore, Delhi and Mumbai burnt effigies of Gere and Shetty to give vent to their anger over the actor’s act on stage at the programme in Delhi, calling it indecent.

In the Capital, Shiv Sena activists converged at Jantar Mantar to express their resentment over the act while in Varanasi, several Shiv Sena and Vande Mataram Sangharsh Samiti activists as well as Muslims took to the streets.

Delhi Shiv Sena chief Jai Bhagwan Goyal said Gere should be arrested immediately for his kissing act. Giving a memorandum to Delhi’s Police Commissioner in this regard, Goyal also demanded police action against Shetty and organisers of the function.

In Mumbai, over 50 Shiv Sena activists converged at the Vashi railway station in Navi Mumbai where the film Metro was being shot and burnt an effigy of Shilpa Shetty and shouted slogans against her, Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Ramrao Wagh said.

The protest did not take any violent turn and the situation was quickly brought under control with some activists being detained, he said.

Amar Jadav, the DCP (Zone 1), Navi Mumbai, said, “We have posted adequate police force in the shooting location now on Railways’ request, so there’s no need to worry.”

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