Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is creating both conversations and controversies in the days following its release on Friday, July 21. Uday Mahurkar, the founder of Save India Save Culture, a right-wing organisation, had written to the director on Monday to remove an intimate scene from the film that pans out in the presence of the Bhagavad Gita. As that row rages on, Twitterati has now caught on to another scene from the film, fuelling more controversies.
In the original scene, as Nolan filmed it and has been released in other parts of the world, actor Florence Pugh is shown in the nude. However, in the version that was released in India, the actor has on a CGI-generated black dress. Given that a major distinguishing factor about Oppenheimer was the almost negligible use of CGI even for the scenes featuring the explosion of the atomic bomb, the Indian version has drawn amusement from many.
The shot in question appears in an intimate scene between the characters Jean Tatlock and Robert Oppenheimer, played by Pugh and Cillian Murphy. Pugh is shown seated in an armchair in a commanding posture as she converses with Murphy. It is unclear if the CGI dress was added in at the post-production phase or if it was hurriedly forced in at a later stage for clearance from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). The poor quality of the CGI dress in a movie by a director well-known for his dislike of computer-generated special effects has drawn both laughs and derision from Nolan’s fans.
— Charles Bramesco (@intothecrevasse) July 24, 2023
The best ever cg work in India award goes to the Indian censor board for florence pugh black dress in #Oppenheimer pic.twitter.com/VRPBy0ARKp
— lucho (@busigoatt) July 23, 2023
Some countries are censoring #Oppeneheimer by putting a CGI black dress on Florence Pugh pic.twitter.com/Bt0Ymxd859
— THEDISCFATHER (@TheDiscFather) July 24, 2023
According to the Hollywood Reporter, who spoke to sources within the Oppenheimer team, “Rather than cut the scene in question, sources close to the film say that a “soft base” version, with Pugh, digitally dressed, was used to secure a release across the Middle East, where nudity is forbidden in cinema, and in India, where the film has a UA rating, meaning it’s classified for viewers with parental guidance for children below 12-years-old.”
Despite critical responses, including the erasure of the victims of the Trinity Test – the test explosion of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico – Oppenheimer has been doing well at the box-office. India is incidentally one of the few countries where the film is raking in more at the box-office than Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, breaking away from the global trend. As of Sunday, Nolan’s popularity in the country brought in Rs 31 crore, compared to Barbie’s Rs 11.5 crore, according to The Hindustan Times.
Oppenheimer chronicles the journey of physicist J Robert Oppenheimer and is based on the book ‘American Prometheus’. The film stars actor Cillian Murphy in the titular role, as well as actors Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, and others.
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