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SYDNEY - Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty blames a "lunatic fringe" for the controversy surrounding her and actor Richard Gere's over-the-top kiss at an Aids charity event.
But she admits the exposure has been priceless for her new movie.
Gere is reportedly in hot water with Indian authorities after he grabbed Shetty, 31, and kissed her last month in New Delhi, an action which sparked outrage across India.
While it was reported Shetty would not be able to leave the country due to a warrant being issued for her arrest, she arrived in Australia today to promote her latest film, Life in A ... Metro.
The kiss which offended conservative Indian sensibilities followed Shetty's controversial time in the UK Celebrity Big Brother house where comments made to her by rival house mates became the subject of a racism scandal.
"It's great timing," she said.
"Hopefully, people will now be interested to see what I actually do."
Life in A ... Metro is an addition to a new wave of Indian cinema which tells modern-day stories in a style closer to Hollywood than Bollywood.
The film deals with the hectic life of young professionals living in Mumbai with strong themes relating to sex and relationships.
Shetty said such stories are "more pertinent and more realistic cinema" than conventional Bollywood fare featuring bright costumes, singing and dancing.
"India is so diverse in so many forms and so similar in others. That is the irony, there is this dichotomy between the urban culture and the culture of the interiors," she said.
"When you live in the fast lane there are so many levels of emotion, whether it be hypocrisy, lust, love, all kids of emotions. It's very unlike an Indian movie to be so unpretentious, so realistic, but this is the way cinema is moving."
Shetty, who has appeared in 50 Bollywood films, doesn't deny interest in her, and to a lesser extent the film, stems from her controversies.
"I am someone who believes everything happens for the best and everything happens for a reason," she said.
"I don't mind people saying that is why I'm famous for the moment, but the fact still remains that this is what I actually do.
"As long as people see the movie at the end of it all, that's a good result."
She said the furore over the Gere kiss had been "blown out of proportion" and the sentiments of the Indian people such as the burning of effigies wasn't representative of the country.
"The media tends to get slightly irresponsible at times but that's the price one has to pay for celebrity," she said.
"The majority of Indians don't feel that way. It was the lunatic fringe that took over.
"This whole moral brigade that got some momentum and some people who had political affiliations got some mileage out of it as well from my profile, and Richard's."
She also denied reports that she will be an intruder to the Australian Big Brother house on the Gold Coast.
"I don't know where they get those stories from. Maybe from the fact they had approached me and I said no a long time ago," she said.
- AAP
