A scene in Christopher Nolan’s latest film, Oppenheimer, in which the titular character appears to have sex while reading verses from an ancient Sanskrit scripture, has irritated a section of social media users, who claim the lines are from the Bhagavad Gita and demand the sequence be removed.
The 180-minute Oppenheimer biographical drama received good reviews when it premiered in India on Friday. It has allegedly made close to Rs 30 crore at the box office in just two days.
In an open letter to Nolan, Uday Mahurkar, the information commissioner for the Government of India, called the scene a “disturbing attack on Hinduism” and pleaded with him to cut it from the film globally.
“We urge, on behalf of billion Hindus and the timeless tradition of lives being transformed by revered Gita, to do all that is needed to uphold the dignity of their revered book and remove this scene from your film across the world. Should you choose to ignore this appeal it would be deemed as a deliberate assault on Indian civilisation. Eagerly await needful action (sic)” Mahurkar, founder of Save Culture Save India Foundation, wrote.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, regarded as ‘the father of the atom bomb’, had learnt Sanskrit and was said to be influenced by the Bhagavad Gita. In an interview, the physicist had recalled that the only thought which came to his mind after he witnessed the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, was a verse from the ancient Hindu text — “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of world.”
In the film, Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, is shown having sex with psychologist Jean Tatler (Florence Pugh) as she asks him to read a verse from what appears to be a Sanskrit book, whose title or cover is not visible. On Tatler’s insistence, a confused Oppenheimer reads out the verse she points at: “Now, I am become Death, destroyer of the world.”
After Universal Pictures trimmed some scenes to make the movie shorter, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) reportedly assigned the movie a U/A grade, designating it as appropriate for viewers over the age of 13.
The movie has a “R- Restricted” rating in the US, meaning anybody under the age of 17 must be accompanied by a parent or other adult supervision. The first R-rated movie directed by Nolan.
Mahurkar wrote in the comment section of his post that he was “perplexed as to how the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) could approve the movie with this scene.” When approached, CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi and the other censor board members didn’t respond right away.
Murphy acknowledged reading the Bhagavad Gita to prepare for his role as Oppenheimer and remarked that “it was an absolutely beautiful text, very inspiring” during the film’s promotional campaign.
Some Gita passages were previously used in a sex scene in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Warner Bros. removed the phrases from the soundtrack in response to complaints.