India, Feb. 13 -- Controversy has erupted over the latest cinematic adaptation of Emily Bronte's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. The movie, which releases today in the United States, stars Australian actors Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacon Elordi as Heathcliff. The controversy relates to the casting of Elordi.

Elordi is of Basque-Australian background. However, fans have pointed out that the novel clearly points to Heathcliff being dark-skinned. Elordi's casting, they say, is 'whitening' one of English literature's best-known protagonists of colour.

Indeed, the descriptions of Heathcliff given in the novel clearly point to a non-white origin. Interestingly, modern and contemporary scholarship have pointed to a South Asian and...