'Filmmaking is full of obstacles'

MUMBAI: Hollywood director Christopher Nolan on Saturday made an impassioned plea to the Indian film industry to revive celluloid as a medium for movies.

Nolan is on a three-day trip to the country aimed at drumming up support for shooting on film, as he did for his 2017 World War II epic “Dunkirk”, going against the trend in an industry which has widely embraced digital technology.

“Filmmaking is full of obstacles… it is not about being logical and pragmatic… it’s about magic, dreams, experiences and bracing your emotional side,” Nolan said after a round table dialogue in Mumbai, the home of Bollywood.

The 47-year-old Oscar-nominated director said he had “a very productive” meeting with members of Bollywood, the world’s largest film industry.

“I am really trying to engage filmmakers in this conversation about how we can maintain, improve and continue to enjoy the celluloid photochemical analogue infrastructure for filmmaking,” Nolan said.

Famed for his extravagant vision in films such as “Interstellar” and “Inception”, Nolan is one of the few big names globally who still use celluloid for film-making.

“We are trying to preserve for future generation the history of films, especially the way the filmmakers originally intended to make the films in,” Nolan said.

He was joined in the discussion by visual artist Tacita Dean and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur who has been working to preserve and restore celluloid films in India.

“We are fighting to save celluloid films in India whereas people are disbanding it without realising their importance,” said Dungarpur.

“We are talking about co-existence with digital formats. Till 2014, we were shooting in older formats in India,” Dungarpur said.

Nolan was set to present his films “Dunkirk” and “Interstellar” in 70mm and 35mm formats to audiences in India, organisers said.