Uptight Indians are up in arms over Richard Gere’s lying his lips on Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.

Fifty-seven year old Gere held the thirty-one year old Indian actress in his arms and kissed her repeatedly on the cheeks as part of an Aids-awareness event last weekend.

The pair appeared at a press conference yesterday in New Delhi to highlight the HIV and Aids epidemic among India’s truck drivers.

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”.