Oppenheimer Florence Pugh nudity censored abroad as Hindu text use sparks rage

Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster Oppenheimer stormed the box office this weekend with $180 million worldwide following critically acclaimed reviews.

Cillian Murphy stars as J Robert Oppenheimer, the Father of the Atomic Bomb and the movie features scenes of his affair with fellow physicist Jean Tatlock, played by Florence Pugh.

A first for Nolan, the film features the two stars engaged in explicit sex scenes and sitting naked opposite each other in armchairs.

However, it’s been reported that the cut of Oppenheimer in some countries like India and Indonesia has Pugh censored and wearing a black CGI dress to cover her nudity.

A photograph of this, which you can see below, has been circulating on Twitter with one person alleging: “Can confirm. This is the version being screened in Indonesia. A lot of her intimate scenes with Cillian was also heavily altered too.”

According to The Independent, a “soft base” cut of Oppenheimer with no nudity was also used in the Middle East to secure release.

Meanwhile, during one of Oppenheimer’s sex scenes, Pugh’s Tatlock halts intercourse and picks up a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism’s most sacred texts.

She asks Murphy’s titular character to read it to her as they resume sex and he reads, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”, which the real Oppenheimer was once famously filmed reciting after the detonation of the atomic bomb.

Conservative Indians have responded in outrage to this scene which they found incredibly offensive.

On Saturday, India’s information commissioner Uday Mahurkar released a statement.

He said the scene was an “attack on Hinduism”, “a direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus” and alleged it was “waging a war on the Hindu community.”

Additionally, Anurag Thakur, the information and culture minister, demanded the scene be removed by India’s Central Board of Film Certification after it was created U/A which recommends parental guidance for those under 12.