Christopher Nolan On Shooting Tenet In India, Calls Mumbai An Extraordinary Looking City
Christopher Nolan is enchanted by India as he says the country is "unbelievably visual" with an "extraordinary history" that made it a suitable location for filming his new feature Tenet.
Master
filmmaker
Christopher
Nolan
is
enchanted
by
India
as
he
says
the
country
is
"unbelievably
visual" with
an
"extraordinary
history"
that
made
it
a
suitable
location
for
filming
his
new
feature
Tenet.
Billed
as
a
globetrotting
game
of
international
espionage
with
a
time-bending
element
at
the
centre,
the
film
features
John
David
Washington
in
the
lead
alongside
Robert
Pattinson,
Elizabeth
Debicki,
Dimple
Kapadia,
Kenneth
Branagh,
Aaron
Taylor
Johnson,
Michael
Caine
and
Clemence
Poesy.
Nolan
and
his
cinematographer
Hoyte
van
Hoytema
shot
the
movie
in
countries
like
Denmark,
Estonia,
Italy,
Norway,
the
UK
and
the
US
as
well
as
India,
where
the
crew
came
down
for
a
five-day
shoot
in
Mumbai
last
September.
The
filmmaker,
who
previously
shot
a
small
sequence
of
his
2012
movie
The
Dark
Knight
Rises
in
Jodhpur,
Rajasthan,
said
he
chose
Mumbai
as
it
was
one
of
the
"most
extraordinary-looking
cities
in
the
world".
"Every
time
I
go
to
India,
I'm
struck
by
how
unbelievably
visual
the
place
is.
I
had
shot
a
couple
of
days
in
Jodhpur
on
The
Dark
Knight
Rises
and
always
wanted
to
go
back
and
shoot
a
more
substantial
sequence,
and
I
had
the
opportunity
to
do
that
on
Tenet,
Nolan
said
in
an
exclusive
transcript
shared
with
PTI
by
Warner
Bros.
"We
shot
in
Mumbai,
which
is
just
one
of
the
most
extraordinary
looking
cities
in
the
world
in
terms
of
its
architecture,
the
amazing
people
and
the
abundance
of
life
on
the
streets
there.
It''s
a
really
remarkable
place
with
this
extraordinary
history,
so,
to
be
able
to
take
the
audience
there,
it
seemed
a
very
exciting
setting," he
added.
In
Mumbai,
the
movie
was
shot
in
areas
like
Breach
Candy
Hospital,
Cafe
Mondegar,
Colaba
Causeway,
Colaba
Market,
Gateway
of
India,
Grant
Road,
Royal
Bombay
Yacht
Club,
and
the
Taj
Mahal
Palace
Hotel.
Nolan
said
that
he
had
a
wonderful
time
collaborating
with
local
crews
in
pulling
off
some
amazing
shots.
"They
have
such
a
wonderful
love
of
film
and
a
highly
developed
film
industry,
it
was
really
fun
to
collaborate
with
the
local
crews
and
learn
about
how
they
make
films
and
cooperate
with
them
in
pulling
off
some
remarkable
things,
including
some
of
the
first-ever
aerial
shots
of
Mumbai
in
a
film.
There
are
some
really
interesting
things
we
were
able
to
capture,
shooting
for
a
relatively
short
space
of
time
in
challenging
conditions
because
it
was
monsoon
season,
so
when
it
rained
it
really
rained.
But
it
was
such
a
wonderfully
atmospheric
place
to
be," the
50-year-old
filmmaker
added.
Nolan
also
opened
up
about
roping
in
a
star-studded
international
cast
for
the
project
as
he
wanted
the
movie
to
transcend
national
boundaries.
"It's
not
about
America
per
se,
it's
about
the
survival
of
the
entire
human
race.
I
wanted
the
stakes
to
be
apparent
and
apparent
in
the
breadth
of
nationalities.
It
really
is
the
notion
of
using
the
diversity
of
the
cast
to
express
that
the
threat
is
a
threat
to
the
entire
world.
So
from
Rob
Pattinson
playing
an
Englishman,
to
Kenneth
Branagh
playing
a
Russian,
to
Elizabeth
Debicki
playing
an
Englishwoman
to
Dimple
Kapadia
playing
an
Indian
woman...
We
were
really
trying
to
bring
in
a
lot
of
different
national
identities
to
play,"
the
filmmaker
said.
In
previous
interviews,
Nolan
has
talked
about
how
he
was
always
fascinated
by
spy
movies,
especially
the
James
Bond
franchise,
but
with
Tenet,
he
wanted
to
do
something
different.
"I've
always
wanted
to
take
on
a
spy
film,
but
I've
also
known
that
I
would
never
be
that
interested
in
just
making
the
kind
of
spy
film
that
I
had
grown
up
watching.
What
I
really
wanted
to
do
was
find
a
way
to
re-energise
it
for
the
audience
--
to
give
them
a
reason
to
look
in
a
fresh
way,
in
a
new
way,
at
some
of
the
tropes
of
the
genre,
which
was
very
much
what
we
did
with
the
heist
genre
in
Inception,
dealing
with
the
world
of
dreams,"
said
Nolan.
The
filmmaker
said
he
likes
to
challenge
the
conventions
of
a
particular
genre
and
present
them
in
a
new
way
to
the
audiences.
"You
get
to
maximise
your
input
from
the
audience
in
a
way
-
they
come
with
an
expectation
about
a
particular
genre,
and
you
get
the
benefit
of
that
in
terms
of
propelling
the
story
forward.
You
also
get
the
benefit
of
that
in
terms
of
using
those
conventions
to
ground
the
audience
in
a
set
of
science
fiction
ideas
that
might
otherwise
be
far
too
abstract
to
get
ahold
of
in
a
short
space
of
time,"
he
added.
Another
aspect
of
filmmaking
that
has
made
Nolan
a
god-like
figure
to
many
cinephiles
is
his
penchant
for
fiddling
with
time.
Right
from
his
breakout
movie
Memento
in
2000
and
then
films
like
Inception
(2010),
Interstellar
(2014)
and
Dunkirk
(2017),
time
is
a
common
thread
that
binds
them
together.
His
answer
to
this
observation
is
simple
--
he
is
"fascinated"
by
time.
"In
my
work,
I've
always
felt
an
interesting
relationship
between
the
process
of
watching
a
film
and
how
films
work,
and
the
notion
of
time
inside
them
and
how
they
relate
to
time.
So,
for
me,
having
narratives
that
in
some
way
explore
the
relationship
between
the
way
we
perceive
time
in
everyday
life
and
the
way
we
perceive
time
in
a
movie
theatres
and
watching
a
film...
that's
always
seemed
an
interesting
place
to
play
around,"
Nolan
said.
The
filmmaker
said
Tenet
will
feel
like
a
"kind
of
apotheosis"
of
some
of
the
ideas
he
has
explored
in
his
movies.
"There
is
a
sense
in
which
the
story
of
Tenet
makes
literal,
makes
a
physical
reality
of
the
story
-
things
that
I
was
doing
structurally
or
metaphorically
in
earlier
movies,"
Nolan
added.
The
Warner
Bros
film
is
slated
to
be
released
in
Indian
theatres
on
December
4
in
English,
Hindi,
Tamil
and
Telugu.