(people.monstersandcritics.com) - Actress Aishwarya Rai is under fire for a kissing scene in her latest Bollywood blockbuster.
India has spawned the erotic masterpiece the Kama Sutra, and their religious icons and artwork depict sensual couplings, celebrations of dual sexuality and exposed body parts. But their comfort level with public displays of affection are quite modest to western sensibilities.
Now, India is home to the latest internal scandal involving the stunning Bollywood actress Rai. The news is mystifying westerners who admire Rai, thought to be one of the world's most beautiful and talented women, and who is eagerly awaited in Hollywood offerings as well.
The root of the problem is a kissing scene from a movie starring Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan, and has upset an Indian lawyer who has filed a criminal case against them, accusing them of obscenity, he said on Sunday to Indian news outlets.
Shailendra Dwivedi of Indore, near Bhopal, the capital of central Madhya Pradesh state, said the scene from the movie, titled "Dhoom 2," lowered the dignity of Indian women and gave an obscene message to youth.
"Bollywood actors are conveying vulgarity in the society," Dwivedi told Reuters. "These films cannot be watched with our families, they are so vulgar at times."
The Himalayan Times reports that a local court "accepted Dwivedi's petition to punish the actors and said it would hear the petitioner on December 11th."
The Indian censor board released the movie with a "parental discretion" certificate.
"A majority of Indians frown upon intimacy in public." Reports the Himalayan Times.