SHILPA SHETTY - SHETTY SLAMS 'GERE KISS' PROTESTORS

Bollywood star SHILPA SHETTY has slammed protestors who reacted to her kiss with RICHARD GERE by burning effigies - branding them "lunatics". The actress was at the centre of a national scandal in India in April (07) after she was kissed several times in jest on the cheek by the Pretty Woman star at an AIDS-awareness event, and was later the subject of an arrest warrant for breaking public decency laws. She says, "I was shocked people reacted that way but it was just a lunatic fringe trying to gain political mileage. "Most Indian people are not like that. I belong to the newer generation and we were appalled by the reaction." The charges against Shetty, 32, were later suspended by India's Supreme Court but last month (Sep07) she was "hassled" by immigration officials at Mumbai airport who thought she still had to face charges.