Union Information & Broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur has taken a strong view of a controversial love-making scene in Hollywood’s Oppenheimer, which features a copy of the Bhagvad Gita, deeming it the collective failure of the Central Board of Film Certification to “safeguard the interests of the public”. He said, the issue could not be overlooked and that stringent action would be taken against alll CBFC members who were involved in clearing the film.
The controversial scene shows Cillian Murphy (who plays J. Robert Oppenheimer in the film) making love to Jean Tatlock (played by Florence Pugh) while she opens a copy of the Bhagvad Gita and asks him to read from it. Murphy reads the line, “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”, the quote which Oppenheimer reportedly recalled when the first nuclear bomb was detonated. The scene then segues to an intimate scene between the two.
The government’s sharp reaction comes in the wake of efforts to rein in vulgarity in visual media in response to “public sentiments”. Central Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar said, “The scene is an insult to Bhagvad Gita, which is our holy book. It sends out powerful and meaningful messages to the entire world. How could someone demean it this way? The scene is an assault on our values and civilisation. It’s an assault on the Hindu community… Nolan should remove this scene from the movie. It reeks of religious hatred. If he doesn’t take out the scene, we will act.”