New Delhi: Union I&B minister Anurag Thakur is understood to have taken a stern view of a controversial scene featuring a copy of the Bhagavad Gita in ‘Oppenheimer’, deeming it the collective failure of the CBFC to “safeguard the interests of the public”.

He said the issue could not be overlooked and that stringent action would be taken against all CBFC members who were involved in approving the screening of the movie.

The scene shows J Robert Oppenheimer with his lover Jean Tatlock, played by Florence Pugh, in which she opens a copy of the Bhagavad Gita and asks him to read from it. Cillian Murphy, who plays the eponymous protagonist, reads the line, “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”, the quote which Oppenheimer reportedly recalled when the first nuclear bomb was detonated. The scene then segues to an intimate scene between the two.

The government’s sharp reaction comes in the wake of several efforts to rein in vulgarity in visual media in what it says is a response to “public sentiments”. The demand for accountability from CBFC also reflects what government sources described as its “commitment to maintaining a robust and responsible film certification process”.

“It’s (the scene) an insult to Bhagavad Gita, which is our holy book. It sends out powerful and meaningful messages to the entire world. How could someone demean it this way? The scene is an assault on our values and civilization. It’s an assault on the Hindu community. . . [Director Christopher] Nolan should remove this scene from the movie. It reeks of religious hatred. If he doesn’t take out the scene, we will act,” Central Information Commissioner (CIC) Uday Mahurkar said.