Cillian Murphy Read Bhagavada Gita To Prepare For His Lead Role In Christopher Nolan's Movie!

Oppenheimer actor Cillian Murphy found the Hindu religious book Bhagavad Gita very useful while preparing for Christopher Nolan’s film. As he prepped to get ready to play theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, who is regarded as one of the fathers of the atom bomb, Cillian took inspiration from Gita.

The physicist depicted in the film had revealed in an interview that he thought of a quote from the Gita in the immediate aftermath of the testing of the world’s first atomic bomb in 1945. Interestingly, Oppenheimer was also a student of the Sanskrit language. When the test concluded successfully, he said that he thought to himself a quote from Gita that goes like this: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”

As Cillian plays Oppenheimer in the eponymous film, he too read the Holy book. While promoting the film, Cillian was asked about the physicist being influenced by the sacred text, to which he said, “I did read the Bhagavad Gita in preparation, and I thought it was an absolutely beautiful text, very inspiring. I think it was a consolation to him, he kind of needed it and it provided him a lot of consolation, all his life.”

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer also stars Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Florence Pugh. The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J Sherwin.

Robert Oppenheimer himself was quite taken with the religious text as he had quoted Gita after the successful testing of world's first atomic bomb, stating, "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." For the unversed, Oppenheimer was a student of Sanskrit.

Earlier, in a press statement, Cillian had revealed how he was approached for the role by the director, "My feeling ever since has been, if Christopher Nolan asks you to do something, no matter what the size of the part, you just turn up. I was not expecting him to call and ask me to play Oppenheimer. But he did. When I got off the phone, I just sat there rather stunned. I felt very lucky. And then we got to work.”

 Oppenheimer releases in cinemas on July 21.