Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh’s ‘Intimate Scene’ slammed by Hindu Nationalist

Oppenheimer’s facing backlash from Hindus.

The Hindu right in India is up in arms over Christopher Nolan's most recent blockbuster film, "Oppenheimer," with some calling for a boycott and others demanding the removal of an intimate scene in which the title character quotes a well-known passage from the religious's holy text.

The scene in question shows actor Cillian Murphy, who plays the major part, having intercourse with actress Florence Pugh, who plays his love interest Jean Tatlock, in a movie that tells the story of the atomic bomb through the eyes of its inventor, Robert Oppenheimer.

During their sexual encounter, Pugh pauses, pulls up a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism's most revered texts, and requests that Murphy read aloud.

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds," Cillian Murphy’s character says and then resumes intercourse.

Right-wing organisations have expressed fury over the scene, with a lawmaker from the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India accusing the movie of being a "disturbing attack on Hinduism" and a "part of a larger conspiracy by anti-Hindu forces."

India's information commissioner, Uday Mahurkar, compared the incident to "waging a war on the Hindu community" in a statement released on Saturday, calling the incident "a direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus."

He added, "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."

In India, which conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, the movie also has gotten positive reviews from reviewers and large audiences who have flocked to theatres to witness it.