India houses some of the diehard Christopher Nolan fans. From Inception to Oppenheimer, the auteur’s films have Indian cinema buffs in a chokehold. The director’s legion of fans had a pleasant surprise when he recently visited India along with stars Tom Holland and Matt Damon. The trio was here on India’s The Odyssey premier tour.

Before their visit to the iconic Mumbai café for chai and bun maska, Christopher Nolan, Tom Holland, and Matt Damon stopped to pose for photographers at a special screening of The Odyssey organised for members of the Indian film industry. The event drew several prominent personalities, including veteran actors Dimple Kapadia and Boman Irani, who attended the premiere.

A day earlier, Nolan had also interacted with excited fans during another screening of the film in Mumbai. Addressing the audience, the acclaimed filmmaker thanked Indian movie lovers for their enduring enthusiasm and support over the years. He noted that although he had visited Mumbai before, this marked the first occasion he had chosen the city to officially launch one of his films, making Indian viewers among the earliest audiences anywhere in the world to watch it.

Nolan also spoke warmly about his connection with India, recalling that he had previously filmed in both Jodhpur and Mumbai. He described every visit to the country as memorable and said he had long hoped to premiere one of his films in India because of the country's passionate and deeply knowledgeable cinema audiences. He added that sharing the experience with Indian viewers was especially meaningful and a major highlight of the film's global rollout.

The Odyssey is Nolan's forthcoming mythological action epic, which he wrote, directed, and co-produced. Inspired by Homer's legendary Greek epic poem, the film chronicles the extraordinary journey of Odysseus as he spends ten years trying to return to his homeland of Ithaca following the end of the Trojan War.

Christopher Nolan's association with India extends well beyond the promotional tour for The Odyssey. Over the years, the Oscar-winning filmmaker has visited the country several times for both filmmaking and initiatives related to cinema.

In 2019, Nolan spent around ten days in Mumbai filming crucial scenes for his science-fiction thriller Tenet. The production shot at several locations across the city, making India an important stop during the movie's international filming schedule.

A year earlier, in 2018, he visited Mumbai for a four-day programme as part of the Reframing the Future of Film initiative. The event focused on film preservation and restoration, with Nolan—an outspoken advocate for safeguarding motion pictures—participating in discussions about protecting cinematic heritage for future generations.

His earliest major work-related visit came in 2011, when he travelled to Jodhpur, Rajasthan, to shoot sequences for The Dark Knight Rises. Parts of the superhero film were filmed at the historic Mehrangarh Fort, whose imposing architecture served as a striking backdrop for key scenes in the movie.