One of the most influential contemporary filmmakers, Christopher Nolan spent a large part of the Saturday noon in Mumbai with the Indian filmmaking community dispelling the myths around celluloid. “There’s been a very powerful fine-tuning by electronic and technology companies to try and transform the industry,” he said, “What happens then is you get accusations undermining a medium, that is film — saying it is more expensive, that there aren’t any projectionists any more… So we[have] spent the last few years just patiently explaining that film is here to stay.”
Nolan was referring to an effort to promote celluloid that he initiated in Hollywood in 2015, along with famous visual artist Tacita Dean. The round table with the Indian filmmakers was the fourth chapter in Nolan and Dean’s ongoing sensitisation effort.
Earlier, the duo have taken their campaign to the filmmaking community and artists in London and Mexico City. “We had a very productive meeting with the Indian filmmaking community, [which is] largest in the world,” said Nolan. It was one of the events presented by Mumbai-based Film Heritage Foundation under the umbrella of “Reframing the Future of Film”.
On the debate between celluloid and digital, Nolan explained that the emphasis is on co-existence. “The artist must have the right to choose,” said Dean. “When we talk about film, it’s film not as a technology but as a creative medium, which Tacita has an interest in as an artist and me as a narrative filmmaker,” clarified Nolan.
He told the media about the major agenda for the round table with the Indian film industry: discussing the availability and feasibility of celluloid, contradicting and alleviating the pessimism surrounding film and promoting preservation and heritage of cinema for the future. Nolan was talking about his interaction with the Indian film industry at a press meet that followed the round table. It was more like the press witnessing a conversation between Nolan, Dean and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of the Film Heritage Foundation, since the meet didn’t allow for any questions that hadn’t been approved in advance.
The industry round table at Yash Raj Studios in Andheri was attended by the heavyweights of Indian cinema like actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kamal Haasan and Jaya Bachchan; cinematographers Santosh Sivan and Sudeep Chatterjee; filmmaker Shyam Benegal. Also present were Director of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and director of the Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, Tasneem Zakaria Mehta.
To stress on the fact that the audience must see a film as the filmmaker intended, there were two screenings of Nolan’s films — 70 mm IMAX film screening of Dunkirk at Carnival Cinemas, IMAX, Wadala, and a 35 mm film screening of Interstellar at Liberty Cinema. As a culmination of his efforts in Mumbai, the filmmaker, along with Dean and Dungarpur will be in a ticketed public conversation on the same subject at the Tata Theatre, NCPA, on Sunday evening.
