Hollywood, Bollywood in Culture Clash
Who'd have ever imagined that serene Buddhist actor and do-gooder Richard Gere would be burned in effigy by angry Hindu throngs all over India? The outcry erupted Sunday after Gere dipped Indian starlet Shilpa Shetty and kissed her face multiple times at an AIDS-awareness event -- and we've got the clip.
Who’d have ever imagined that serene Buddhist actor and do-gooder Richard Gere would be burned in effigy by angry Hindu throngs all over India? The outcry erupted Sunday after Gere dipped Indian starlet Shilpa Shetty and kissed her face multiple times at an AIDS-awareness event.
Daily Mail:
In the latest controversy, individuals in Mumbai belonging to the right-wing Hindu nationalist group Shiv Sena set fire to images of Shetty and beat burning effigies of Gere with sticks.
Protests also erupted in other cities, including Varanasi, Hinduism’s holiest city, and in the northern town of Meerut, where crowds chanted “Down with Shilpa Shetty”.
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A kind of critical mass has been reached in India following years of activism and calls for change and accountability, and high-profile men are starting to face consequences for sexual misconduct.
Rape is no joking matter, that much is clear. But the members of an Indian comedy group has used sarcasm to highlight the absurdity of blaming victims of sexual assault, and has succeeded in sparking a much-needed debate in their nation.
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The Nigerian movie industry, known as Nollywood (a play on Hollywood in the manner of Bollywood), has grown from an accidental discovery into a mega-industry of over 2,000 titles and $200M annually. The Nigerian movie industry has grown from an accidental discovery into a mega-industry of over 2,000 titles and $200M annually.
This has to rank among the more embarrassing airport diplomacy blunders in post-9/11 America: U.S. immigration officials pulled Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh "King" Khan aside for questioning at the Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday, failing to recognize the "King of Bollywood," thus causing an international stir of a decidedly undesirable sort.
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