Jun 17, 2026 11:37am IST
From Jodhpur To Mumbai: Christopher Nolan, Matt Damon And Tom Holland’s Long-Standing Connection With India
In a landmark moment for the Indian entertainment industry, acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan will visit India for the premiere of his upcoming mythic action epic, "The Odyssey," alongside producer Emma Thomas and actors Matt Damon and Tom Holland. This will mark the director's first-ever film premiere in the country. Directed by Christopher Nolan and produced by Emma Thomas, "The Odyssey" is inspired by the ancient Greek tale traditionally attributed to Homer. Starring Matt Damon and Tom Holland, it is amongst the most anticipated Hollywood releases on the global calendar.
As the stars are expected to be in the country, this isn't Nolan, Damon, or Holland's first visit. Nolan, the director who has built a strong reputation for large-scale cinematic storytelling through films such as "Inception" (2010), "Interstellar" (2014), "Dunkirk" (2017), and "Oppenheimer" (2023), visited India in 2012 for filming scenes of "The Dark Knight Rises." He shot a few scenes with Christian Bale at Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The exterior shots of a pit in one of the scenes from the movie were filmed at the fort. The stepped walls and prison-like architecture were based on and partially filmed at Chand Baori, one of India's most dramatic stepwells. It provided the visual language for the prison interior.
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Having said that, Nolan also visited India in March 2018 for Film Heritage Foundation's Reframing the Future of Film campaign. The director held personal meet-ups with entertainment industry legends, including Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. He visited India again in 2019, when he filmed "Tenet" (2020).
Not just that, Christopher Nolan has often shown India or Indian elements in his movies, including "Interstellar," "Tenet" (2020). and more. In Interstellar, a scene featuring an Indian Air Force surveillance drone, where Cooper and Murph try to chase it down, was quite appreciated by audiences. Nolan's collaboration with Dimple Kapadia and Denzil Smith in Tenet (2020) is widely discussed too. Kapadia played the role of a powerful Mumbai-based arms dealer, Priya Singh, while Smith played her husband, Sanjay Singh.
In his movie "Oppenheimer" (2023), Nolan showed the physicist's inclination towards Indian scriptures, including the Bhagavad Gita.
Matt Damon visited India in 2004, where he filmed for Paul Greengrass' "The Bourne Supremacy in Goa." He also visited the country to conduct philanthropic work for the organisation Water.org. On the other hand, Tom Holland visited India in March and April 2023 to attend the grand launch event of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai and was accompanied by Zendaya. Tom and Zendaya’s appearance at the launch was the ultimate paparazzi moment, with the star couple stealing the spotlight on their Mumbai debut.
The details of the Mumbai premiere event are yet to be announced. However, the arrival of Nolan, Thomas, Damon, and Holland is expected to generate significant excitement amongst audiences and cinema exhibitors across the country.
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