NEW DELHI: The Da Vinci Code escaped the censors’ knife on Thursday, but the tag of an adult film and a disclaimer was stuck on it before the film could hit the silver screens.

The disclaimers and the A tag is to pamper the Christian organisations who had cried foul about the film suggesting that Jesus Christ had married Mary Magdalene and their descendents were still alive on planet earth.

So technically the film, which premiered at the Cannes film festival and disappointed film buffs there, can be screened in India from Friday. But this may not happen considering the fact that the film has to incorporate the disclaimer and the ‘A’ tag.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, who viewed the film with representatives of various Catholic bodies, said it would be given an adults only certificate as only adults can distinguish “between fact and fiction”.

Christian leaders who opposed the screening of the movie starring Tom Hanks had made a climb down from their initial demand to ban the movie and asked for "strong and lingering disclaimers" describing the movie ass a work of pure fiction with "no resemblance to historical truth".

This has been accepted as a way out by the government. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) would now communicate to the producers of the film, Sony Pictures, them about the decision.

About 300 Christian groups in the country had resorted to agitations and representations to the government in a bid to prevent the screening of the film, forcing the government to arrange a special screening of "The Da Vinci Code" for the I& B Minister, who viewed the film along with Christian leaders.

Dasmunshi defended the special screening saying religious sensitivities were involved. He also recalled that the Aamir Khan starrer Rang De Basanthi was cleared only after the Army chief and the Defence minister had whetted it.

But the I&B minister said personally he felt the movie was one of the good productions, “with a well cut theme based on pure fiction”.

Dasmunsi was also convinced that the film deserved an adults only tag. Over to the theatres for the $ 125 million movie.