Renowned Hollywood filmmaker Christopher Nolan arrived in India for a three-day trip on Friday. Known for modern classics such as "Memento", "The Prestige", "Inception" and the Dark Knight series came with his wife and children to Mumbai today morning. Filmmaker-archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur will host renowned filmmaker Christopher Nolan for three days and he hopes the director's trip to India will draw attention to the cause of film preservation and restoration.
Nolan may be one of the most innovative and visionary filmmakers of the current generation but he has his feet firmly planted in tradition, being one of the last directors to shoot on photochemical film when rest of the world has gone digital. He has often spoken about restoring old film reels and, in fact, is slated to present the 70mm print of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey" at the Cannes Film Festival to mark the movie's 50th anniversary.
Dungarpur has been at the forefront of restoration efforts in Indian cinema and even made a film, "The Celluloid Man", on Indian archivist PK Nair but the filmmaker feels the film industry here is still apathetic towards its heritage. "We have got support for a cause which we have been fighting alone. It is fantastic. There was hardly any support from the film industry and people in India. And suddenly you get support from two internationally world-renowned artistes (Nolan and celebrated visual artist Tacita Dean). We want that they (industry people) should be awakened. They should realise that people from across the world are realising things and supporting us, so why not support here," Dungarpur added.
Without taking names, Dungarpur says he reached out to almost the entire industry, including Bollywood and people from southern cinema, but never found any help. "They just say what you are doing is great, we are proud of you. Instead of saying I will help you, I have been told others should come and help you.
"Everybody knows about our foundation, we have done three workshops. We have been voicing for this since three years. We are looking after the heritage of the film industry and we do not get funding to safeguard their heritage," he adds.
A public lecture on 'Process and the Non-Deliberate Act' by Dean is slated to take place on Friday. It will be followed by a discussion on 'Reframing The Future Of Film' on Monday in Mumbai with Nolan, Dean and Dungarpur. A roundtable discussion is also planned with prominent personalities of the Indian film industry to be attended by Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kamal Haasan, Shyam Benegal and others.
Nolan will be present for the screenings of two of his recent films --Oscar-nomianted "Dunkirk" and "Interstellar".
(With PTI inputs)
