After a highly anticipated release, a controversial scene from Oppenheimer has attracted criticism from an Indian official who claims that the film contains “a scathing attack on Hinduism”.
India’s Information Commissioner and founder of the Save Culture Save India (SCSI) Foundation, Uday Mahurkar, took to Twitter with a message addressed to the film’s director, Christopher Nolan.
“A scene in the movie shows a woman makes a man read Bhagwad Geeta aloud while getting over him and doing sexual intercourse,” the tweet read.
“She is holding Bhagwad Geeta in one hand, and the other hands seems to be adjusting the position of their reproductive organs.”
READ MORE: Singer stops Sydney concert after sign in front row
“The Bhagwad Geeta is one of the most revered scriptures of Hinduism,” he continued, labelling the scene “a direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus.”
The tweet goes urged Nolan to “remove this scene from your film across world” and noted, “Should you choose to ignore this appeal it would be deemed as a deliberate assault on Indian civilisation.”
In the sex scene Florence Pugh’s character Jean Tatlock pauses during intercourse and walks over to a bookshelf after Cillian Murphy’s character Robert Oppenheimer claimed he could read and speak Sanskrit.
Pugh then picks out a copy of the Bhagavad Gita and asks Murphy to read from it.
Murphy reads the line “I am become Death, destroyer of worlds,” as intercourse resumes.
READ MORE: Tom Brady snapped with model after divorce
Despite the film being passed with a U/A certificate by India’s Central Board of Film Certification and Indian fans flocking to sessions as early as 3am on the day of release as per Variety, many fans took to social media to express their disappointment.
According to the outlet, India’s minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur has also asked for the sex scene to be deleted.
The popularity of the film however has yet to have seen impacts on it’s success with the film raking in $3.6 million (approx. $5.3 million) in its first two days of release in India alone.
READ MORE: Mystery over missing actor’s cause of death
This is not the first time that the Bhagavad Gita has been appropriated in a Hollywood film.
When Eyes Wide Shut was released in 1999, an orgy scene in the film featured lines from the 700-verse Hindu scripture.
Upon being protested against by Hindu groups, Warner Bros. edited out the lines from the soundtrack.
For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here
Where you’ve seen the actors of Oppenheimer before
