Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s eagerly awaited biography, has undoubtedly outraged Indian nationalists. Although Indian media had previously been proud of the inclusion of its sacred texts in Nolan’s masterwork, the conversation and the scene itself infuriated the Hindu community.
Oppenheimer contains several personal scenes enacted between Oppenheimer and Jean Tatlock, even though Nolan is not known for featuring such in his films.
Warning: Spoiler!
Pugh takes a book of Hindu text and instructs Oppenheimer to read from it in the contentious moment.
Then, just before having sex with his mistress, Jean Tatlock (played by Florence Pugh), Oppenheimer (played by Cilian Murphy), utters a passage from the Bhagwad Gita.
In the sequence, Oppenheimer recites the famous phrase he famously stated during a TV documentary in 1965, “Now I become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Social media users promised to boycott the movie as soon as it had its Indian debut because of that one moment, which a nationalist had called “a scathing attack on Hinduism.”
The nationalist “Save Culture Save India Foundation” issued a press statement in which it urged “urgent investigation… and severe punishment for those responsible.”
More than 3,600 people retweeted comments made against Oppenheimer by the organization’s founder, government official Uday Mahurkar, denouncing the film.
Despite the persistent threat, neither representatives from the film certification board nor Universal Pictures India, the local branch of the film’s producers, quickly responded to requests for comment.
Irish actor Cillian Murphy plays US physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the development of the atomic bomb during World War Two, in Christopher Nolan’s film, which has an ensemble cast.
