Harshit Singh
J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) declares, “I am death, destroyer of the world, after his lover Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) implores him to recite passages from the Bhagavad Gita as they make love. The emotional sequence occurs in the biopic of the scientist, which Christopher Nolan wrote, produced, and directed. It is a big hit in India, shattering box office records over its first weekend with Rs 60 crore (gross) across 1,923 screens. In fact, behind the US and the UK, India has the third-highest collection worldwide.
A particular group of Hindus are currently very upset about the aforementioned incident. Uday Mahurkar, the information commissioner, wrote a letter to Nolan on Twitter on July 22 in which he expressed his disapproval of the movie’s “scathing attack on Hinduism” and its improper usage of the holy book. Mahurkar, writing on behalf of the Save Culture Save India Foundation, stated: “We do not know the motivation and logic behind this needless drama in a scientist’s life. However, this amounts to waging war on the Hindu community and almost certainly is a part of a bigger conspiracy by anti-Hindu forces. It is a direct attack on the religious convictions of a billion tolerant Hindus.
Mahurkar continued by charging Hollywood with having double standards since the industry is “sensitive about” how the Quran and Islam are portrayed in its films in order to protect viewers’ feelings and the “value system of a common Muslim.” For individuals who try to breach this line, there is a term that has gained popularity: Islamophobia. Why shouldn’t Hindus also receive the same courtesy?
The two sex scenes that are in the movie were generously cut by the studio, Warner Bros Pictures Private Limited, with one even using a black strip on screen to cover the nudity. However, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) didn’t request that the scene be removed from the movie. It merely requested two modifications while assigning a U/A grade. The first involved adding anti-smoking health messages to the movie’s opening and middle scenes, while the second involved muzzling the word “asshole” and having it removed from the subtitles.
According to the impressive numbers Oppenheimer has tallied in India—it is the biggest opening weekend for a Hollywood movie that isn’t a franchise and the biggest for a Hollywood movie in 2023—Indian audiences so far don’t seem to mind that Nolan chose to use the Sanskrit lines from the Hindu scripture.
Up until July 23 (Sunday), BookMyShow had sold an astounding 1.4 million tickets for Oppenheimer, which accounted for 74% of the total box office take. Cinemas were compelled to hold performances until 12 am and even 3 am due to the overwhelming desire to watch the spectacle on a huge screen. Even those had already run out. The movie is playing to a full house in Srinagar, where there is just one INOX theatre, and is ready to unseat Pathaan in terms of box office receipts.
Of course, Oppenheimer is hardly the first movie to offend Hindus. Since its debut last month, Adipurush has drawn criticism for disrespecting the gods, especially Lord Hanuman, who speaks in a common language. Cases have been brought against the filmmakers for this. The decision by the Supreme Court bench of Justices S.K. Kaul and M.M. Sundresh not to challenge the CBFC’s certification judgement recently provided some respite for the filmmakers. Justice Kaul noted that “everyone is touchy about everything now…tolerance for films, books is going down.”
The #BoycottOppenheimer trends and the Adipurush scandal had already set Twitter ablaze, so the CBFC has taken notice of the criticism it has received for approving the films, which have damaged Hindu feelings, without any cuts. It is not taking any chances and is reported to have received approval from the reviewing committee for OMG 2, which stars Akshay Kumar as Lord Shiva. Manoj Muntashir, who wrote the script for Adipurush, was forced to apologise to the viewers, and the producers were forced to change certain phrase and return to the dubbing studio to repair the damage. To appease the critics, Warner Bros. may decide to completely exclude the scene. For the time being, though, Indians continue to throng movie theatres to watch the biography of the man referred to as the “father” of the atomic bomb.
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