Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Bollywood actress and "the most beautiful woman in the world," told Sir David Frost that she received "legal threats" after kissing a man onscreen in the 2006 film "Dhoom 2." According to The Daily Mail, Bachchan didn't go into specifics, but did explain how locking lips with co-star Hrithik Roshan got her in hot water.
"I actually got a couple of notices, legal notices, from some people in the country turning around and saying 'You are iconic, you’re an example to our girls you have led your life in such an exemplary manner, they’re not comfortable with you doing this on screen so why did you?'" Bachchan recalled. "And I was like, 'Wow, I'm just an actor, doing my job, and here I am being asked to offer an explanation for a couple of seconds in a two, three hour piece of cinema."
Watch Bachchan and Roshan kiss in the clip below; the moment happens at the 3:53 mark.
While the scene was not without controversy, "Dhoom 2" was a big hit for Bachchan (who was then simply known as Aishwarya Rai; she married Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan in 2007). The film earned 111 crore (roughly $20 million in U.S. dollars), making it the third highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time of its release. "Dhoom 2" currently sits as the seventh biggest film in the country's history. For her work in "Dhoom 2," Bachchan received a Best Actress nomination from the Filmfare Awards.
Despite the kiss, Bachchan acknowledged that physical contact was certainly frowned upon in Eastern culture.
"I'd assume that's really a reflection of our society," Bachchan said to CBS in 2009. "Of course people kiss and of course people have a very healthy love life. This is the land of the Kama Sutra. But nevertheless, in our society you don't really see people around the street corner kissing or being extremely, overtly, physically demonstrative publicly. They do it privately but not publicly."
For more on Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, head over to The Daily Mail.
[via The Daily Mail]
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