Vocal members of India’s right wing are demanding answers from the country’s Central Board of Film Certification, which is responsible for censoring films deemed objectionable, after Oppenheimer was released in the country with a scene depicting the main character reading from the Bhagavad Gita in an intimate setting—the latest controversy in India’s history of film censorship.
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, left, and Cillian ... [+]
In Oppenheimer, the hit Christopher Nolan-directed historical thriller that was released in India Thursday, protagonist J. Robert Oppenheimer reads aloud from the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text, while having sex.
While the visible nudity in that scene had been censored using a CGI dress and the cover of a hardcopy of the scripture had been blurred in the Indian version, many on the religious right were still enraged that the CBFC allowed this part of the film to make it into Indian theaters.
The government’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur has publicly called for accountability from the CBFC and said stringent action will be taken against those responsible for approving the film, The Times of India reported.
Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar took to Twitter to express his disgust, calling the scene “a scathing attack on Hinduism” and “a direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus” that “almost appears to be part of a larger conspiracy by anti-Hindu forces.”
Some, however, pushed back against the criticism, including Bollywood director Ram Gopal Varma, who wrote on Twitter, "Irony is that an American nuclear scientist Oppenheimer read the Bhagwad Geeta which I doubt even 0.0000001 % of Indians read,” using an alternative spelling of the book.
In the days leading up to the film, many Hindu Indians were excited to see their sacred text represented in a large international blockbuster film, The Hindu reported. But it was the way the book appeared that upset many viewers. The real-life Oppenheimer, the scientist who lead the development of the atomic bomb for whom the film is based on, was reportedly heavily influenced by the book, having been introduced to it, as well as the Sanskrit language it is written in, while he was a professor at the University of California in Berkeley. Ahead of the detonation of the first atomic bomb, Oppenheimer reportedly quoted the book, saying “now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds,” the same excerpt he reads during the sex scene that has generated controversy.
Narendra Modi’s ruling government has attempted to ramp up film censorship in India over the past few years. In January, his government banned a BBC documentary that was critical of his role in the 2002 anti-Muslim riots and blocked people from sharing it online, the Associated Press reported. To be shown in India, films already must be certified by the CBFC, which decides whether a film contains too much offensive material, such as nudity, violence or profanity, as well as other undesirable content. American film 50 Shades of Grey, was rejected by the CFBC for its sexual content in 2015 while 2014’s No Fire Zone: In the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, an Indian investigative documentary, was refused certification on the basis it would damage diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka. In 2021, Modi and his allies attempted to pass an amendment to the country’s Cinematograph Bill, which would’ve allowed them to ask the CBFC to review films again after it has already approved them and even ask the CBFC to reverse their decision.
Union minister Anurag Thakur warns of action on CBFC over ‘Oppenheimer’ (The Times of India)
Oppenheimer controversy | I&B Minister Anurag Thakur demands explanation from CBFC (The Hindu)
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