Shilpa Shetty arrested over her infamous kiss with Richard Gere

28 September 2007 - 'Celebrity Big Brother' winner Shilpa Shetty has been arrested at an Indian airport over her infamous kiss with Richard Gere.

The Bollywood actress - who caused huge controversy when she shared a public embrace with the 'Pretty Woman' star in April - was told by Mumbai Airport officials she was still wanted in connection with obscenity charges.

Shetty - who was on her was to Berlin for the opening of the 'Miss Bollywood' musical - was held by immigration officials, who had no record of a Supreme Court ruling which had overturned a ban on her leaving the country.

Her spokesman, Dale Bhagwagar, said: "She called me in the middle of the night and was in tears."

Shetty added: "I can understand something like this if I'd committed a criminal offence.

"But what was my offence, when I'm just an actor, going to perform a musical on foreign land."

But the 32-year-old actress' British spokeswoman Teji Singh has denied the star was arrested.

Singh said: "Every time Shilpa leaves the country she has to show her paperwork, because of the Richard Gere thing.

"There was absolutely no detention, no arrest whatsoever. She was rummaging through to get her paperwork and just stepped aside to a side room so she wouldn't block the queues.

"She wasn't crying. She was bunged up with the flu and she was only in there for eight to 15 minutes."

Gere, 58, caused scandal in India earlier this year when he swept Shetty into an embrace, and kissed her several times on the cheek after shouting, "No condom, no sex", in Hindi to thousands of truckers gathered at an Aids-awareness event.

After the incident arrest warrants were issued for both Gere and Shetty and she was banned from travelling abroad. This ruling was later overturned by the Supreme Court.

Shetty later said the kiss had "been blown out of proportion".

(C) BANG Media International