The Israeli embassy in India said on Friday that it was “disturbed by the trivialisation” of the Holocaust in the recently released movie Bawaal.

The Holocaust was the genocide of Jews in Europe during the Second World War carried out by Adolf Hitler-led Nazi Germany. Between 1941 and 1945, about 60 lakh Jews were killed across Nazi Germany-occupied Europe.

Bawaal depicts the two lead characters – played by Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor – visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where Jews were murdered in gas chambers. In a dream sequence, the actors are seen suffocating while wearing striped clothes – akin to the uniform that prisoners wore in the camp.

At one point in the film, Kapoor’s character Nisha says: “Every relationship goes through its Auschwitz.” The line is used to imply that every relationship goes through its struggles.

In its statement on Friday, the Israeli Embassy took exception to “poor choice in the utilisation of some terminology”.

“...We urge everyone who may not be fully aware of the horrors of the Holocaust to educate themselves about it,” the embassy said.

The statement came two days after Jewish human rights organisation, Simon Wiesenthal Center, demanded that streaming platform Amazon Prime Video should take down the film. Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the organisation, said that Auschwitz is not a metaphor but a “quintessential example of man’s capacity for evil”.

Also read: ‘Bawaal’ review: Nazi atrocities get the Bollywood treatment