Oppenheimer sex scene sparks outrage as officials claim film 'wages war' on religious community
Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh in Oppenheimer
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Oppenheimer has proven to be a box office smash as cinemagoers flocked in their droves to see Cillian Murphy bring the troubled physicist to screens.
However, the Christopher Nolan epic has now angered officials in India who have urged the filmmaker to remove a sex scene between Murphy and onscreen love interest Florence Pugh altogether.
Uday Mahurkar of the nationalist group Save Culture Save India (SCSI) Foundation issued an open letter to Nolan appealing with him to axe the moment.
In the scene, a naked Oppenheimer (played by Murphy) is laid on his bed while Pugh's Jean Tatlock, also nude, holds the Bhagwad Geeta and asks him to read aloud a passage.
A flustered Oppenheimer then reads aloud: "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds."
The two then engage in sexual intercourse in what is now being described as a "direct assault" on "the religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus."
Emily Blunt joins Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh at the Oppenheimer premiere
PA
Mahurkar has said the scene should be "investigated on an urgent basis" and called for those involved to be "severely punished".
In his open letter shared on Twitter, he wrote: "We do not know the motivation and logic behind this unnecessary scene on life of a scientist.
"But this is a direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus, rather it amounts to waging a war on the Hindu community and almost appears to be part of a larger conspiracy by anti-Hindu forces."
Appealing to Nolan directly, he penned: "You have great admiration in India for your art of filmmaking."
Before he urged: "We believe that if you remove this scene and do the needful to win hearts of Hindus, it will go a long way to establish your credentials as a sensitized human being and gift you friendship of billions of nice people.
"We urge, on behalf of billion Hindus and timeless tradition of lives being transformed by revered Geeta, to do all that is needed to uphold dignity of their revered book and remove this scene from your film across world."
However, the letter came with a warning: "Should you choose to ignore this appeal it would be deemed as a deliberate assault on Indian civilisation."
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Oppenheimer has become a box office smash after going up against Barbie at the cinema
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And Mahurkar isn't alone as India’s minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur has also asked for the scene to be cut, according to NDTV [via Variety].
The open letter and scene itself have prompted some calls to boycott the picture while others claimed Mahurkar's response is an overreaction.
Despite the controversy, Oppenheimer still got off to a flying start at the Indian box office.
The movie is reported to have grossed 600m rupees (approximately £5.71m) since it debuted in the country last Friday, outperforming Greta Gerwig's Barbie, according to Sky.