In Hollywood, a kiss may be just a kiss, but a few public pecks Richard Gere shared with Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty have sparked an uproar.

Hollywood actor Richard Gere hugs and kisses Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty during an event for HIV/AIDS awareness in New Delhi on Sunday, a display that has outraged Indians with traditional views of modesty.
(Gurinder Osan/Associated Press)

Activist and veteran actor Gere appeared in New Delhi on Sunday with the recent winner of British reality contest Celebrity Big Brother for an HIV/AIDS awareness event aimed at Indian truck drivers.

Before a cheering crowd, Gere bestowed a series of kisses on the giggling Shetty: first on her hand, then both cheeks and, finally, he bent her back in a full embrace before kissing one cheek again.

Indians are traditionally reserved in public displays of affection. Love scenes in films, for example, are chaste compared with those depicted in North America and Europe.

Photos of the two actors were splashed across a host of Indian newspapers Monday and angry crowds gathered in Mumbai, Varanasi and other cities to burn effigies and images of the two.

Shetty appealed for calm in interviews on Monday.

"I understand this is his culture, not ours," she told news agency Press Trust of India.

"This was not such a big thing or so obscene for people to overreact in such a manner."

However, politicians have begun weighing in and adding to the outcry.

Prakash Javadekar, the spokesman for the country's Hindu nationalist party, condemned the public embrace and told the Press Trust "such a public display is not part of Indian tradition."

With files from the Associated Press