Want to watch more Indian cinema: Christopher Nolan

The Oscar-nominated filmmaker was on a visit to India to create awareness about celluloid films in the digital era
Want to watch more Indian cinema: Christopher Nolan

Multiple Oscar-nominated filmmaker Christopher Nolan, known for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, says he is interested to watch and know more about Indian cinema.

On a visit to India to create awareness about celluloid films in the digital era, Nolan, at an interaction with select media here, asked if he watched any Indian films, said, "I have watched some Indian cinema, not enough though. But enjoyed them very much. I want to watch more of them."

The Insomnia filmmaker, who landed in Mumbai on Friday after a quick trip to Delhi, interacted with many iconic Indian film personalities, including Shah Rukh Khan and Kamal Hassan, on the subject matter of 'Reframing The Future of Film in India'.

"In fact that is one of the reasons why I am here in India, other than I believe in the cause (of saving celluloid film), is to meet more people from the Indian film industry and engage with the people from one of the greatest film cultures of the world... to learn more about it," Nolan said.

Being a filmmaker who's made films like Interstellar, Dunkirk, Inception using high-end technology, supporting the celluloid film is quite a traditional thought. Asked about how he reconciles these two, Nolan said, "Film is a media to tell a story so you can use whatever technology you want for it."

"For example in Dunkirk, we tried to tell the story in an ambitious way, in a different way. We used interesting structural techniques and approaches. Traditionalist in terms of working methodology... to me, that is a technical question and not an artistic question," he said.

Born in 1970 in London, Nolan had a keen interest in storytelling and eventually that transformed into his aspiration to become a professional filmmaker. At the tender age of seven, he used his father's camera to make short films. In fact, at the age of eight, Nolan, who was highly influenced by watching Star Wars made a stop motion animation called Space Wars.

Interestingly, though well-versed with use of modern technology, the filmmaker does not use social media and cell phones. Asked what made him stop using social media, Nolan said, "I am not really interested in social media. We may live in a digital age but we are also living in an analog world. One of the interesting things about celluloid film is also that it really has a very good relationship with the real life; that, for me, at least, digital doesn't. It is about powerful storytelling too."

The 47-year-old film director went on to say, "There is a problem with the word digital. The word digital semantically means what? What is digital? Digital technology is used in everything. I used a massive amount of digital technology in my films."

Asked if he would like to make a film to address any political issue the way Steven Spielberg did with his film The Post, he maintained, "Well, no I tend to be instinctive about my choices. I think it is more important for me to present myself as a practical filmmaker. I think it would be very difficult for me to muster any enthusiasm."

So, what is the way to preserve the practice of celluloid filmmaking? "It is really about encouraging new filmmakers tp use celluloid film, going to labs and making sure that those technicians are passing the knowledge to the future generation. In America, there are theatre chains that conduct workshops, something that Shivendra (Singh Dungarpur, founder of Film Heritage Foundation) is also doing in India. I think we should start getting testimonies from people who understand this technology well and get it in a book form. But at this moment, through workshops, we can teach and get people hands on to these types of equipment," he said

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