The sex scene in Hollywood film Oppenheimer The content, which contains a line from Hindu scriptures, has sparked outrage online in India, with one official calling it a “horrific plot”.
The drama about US scientist Robert Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy, opened in India on Friday to positive reviews, reportedly earning more than $3m at the box office there in two days.
The film tells the story of Oppenheimer, who is often called the “father of the atomic bomb” for his work in developing the first nuclear weapons.
Religious quotes on sex pictures
One photo showing Oppenheimer and his lover Jean Tatlock, played by Florence Pugh, has caused outrage on the Internet.
In the scene, the actor recites a verse from the Bhagavad Gita, considered the holiest of Hindu scriptures, just before we have sex.
Murphy recites the line, “Now I am death, destroyer of worlds”, words Oppenheimer says he remembered when the first nuclear bomb was detonated.
In various interviews, Oppenheimer, who died in 1967, spoke of his interest in the religion. He also studied Sanskrit, the sacred language of Hinduism.
‘Invasion of religious beliefs’: Legal
“This is a direct attack on the religious beliefs of billions of Hindus,” Uday Mahurkar, head of the government’s Central Information Commission, wrote to the film’s director, Christopher Nolan, on Monday.
“It’s like fighting a Hindu sect,” Mahurkar said in the letter, which he posted on Twitter, urging Nolan to tone down the incident.
Hashtags like #BoycottOppenheimer and #RespectHinduCulture have been trending on Twitter.
Harris Sultan, a writer, said Hindus were “left angry and shocked by the lack of respect”.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a prominent right-wing Hindu group, said the film was an attempt to “attack” the Hindu community and ordered that the show be scaled down.
“The makers apologize to the Hindu community around the world whose sentiments have been deeply hurt,” spokesman Vinod Bansal told AFP.
Hindus are the majority in India but minorities, including Muslims, make up the majority of the population.
Critics say religious intolerance has been on the rise in the populous country since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu government came to power in 2014.