BOMBAY, India – "The Da Vinci Code" will be released in movie theaters across India on Friday — one week late — after the censor board and its distributor reached an agreement to display statements saying the film is fiction.
The movie didn't hit movie theaters in India along with its worldwide release last week due to negotiations over the statement.
Many Christians have expressed outrage at the movie's theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had offspring, and that the Vatican and conservative Catholic group Opus Dei tried to cover it up.
Vikramjit Roy, a spokesman for Sony Pictures India Ltd., the distributor, confirmed the film would be released in India Friday, after an agreement to run announcements before and after the film.
The statement reads: "The characters and incidents portrayed and the names herein are fictitious, and any similarity to the name, character or history of any person is entirely coincidental and unintentional."
Roy said it would run at the beginning and end of the movie for 15 seconds.
After protests by Catholic groups, the country's censor board ruled last week that only adults could watch the film, while clearing it without any cuts.
The movie, which that opened on more than 12,000 screens internationally, drew $232 million at the end of the opening weekend, a statement from Sony said.
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