Richard Gere apologized on Friday for the brouhaha he inadvertently caused with his showy embrace of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty, as Indian legal experts denounced the right-wing groups that have demonized the two actors this week.

Last week, Indian newspapers carried images of Gere hugging and kissing Shetty on the cheek at an AIDS awareness event, while TV reports repeatedly aired footage of the embrace. Crowds in several cities subsequently burned effigies of Gere and Shetty in protest and criticized  the two for public obscenity.

Richard Gere apologized on Friday for his showy embrace of Indian actress Shilpa Shetty at an HIV/AIDS awareness event in New Delhi on April 15.
(Strdel/AFP/Getty)

"What is most important to me is that my intentions as an HIV/AIDS advocate be made clear, and that my friends in India understand that it has never been, nor could it ever be, my intention to offend you," Gere, who had left India shortly after the event, said in a statement issued on Friday.

"If that has happened, of course, it is easy for me to offer a sincere apology."

Arrest warrant ordered for Gere

A judge in northwestern India issued a warrant on Thursday for the arrest of the star of  American Gigolo and Pretty Woman, after receiving a complaint about the April 15 incident. Under Indian law, a person convicted of public obscenity could face a maximum sentence of up to three months in prison.

In an interview on Thursday, Gere attributed the kiss-kerfuffle to "a very small right-wing, very conservative political party in India," a country he frequently visits to promote health issues and to visit Tibet's exiled Dalai Lama, who lives in northern India.

"They are the moral police in India, and they do this kind of thing quite often," Gere said during an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

"I don't know that anyone has actually gone to jail, it has to go through a process. It goes to a reputable court and they throw it out," he said.

Arrest order 'ridiculous'

Indian legal officials have also weighed in on the matter, with many calling it a publicity stunt and others saying the judge who issued the arrest warrant should be penalized.

"The order is unsustainable and makes us look ridiculous," Soli Sorabjee, India's former attorney general, told the Times of India newspaper.

"Magistrates should not act like Taliban moral police."

Shetty, who shot to fame earlier this year when she won the British reality show Celebrity Big Brother after having suffered racial taunts and bullying, has repeatedly appealed for calm over the past two weeks while she has been travelling in southern India.

With files from the Associated Press