Ahead of Christopher Nolan's Mumbai visit, Film Heritage Foundation screens 70mm epic Ben-Hur

On a recent Thursday evening in Mumbai, more than 1,000 cinephiles chose a spectacle, filling a theater for a rare 70mm screening of Ben-Hur. The event, hosted by film preservationist, filmmaker and Film Heritage Foundation director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, unfolded an evening before the much-anticipated visit of filmmaker Christopher Nolan, serving as a tribute to large-format cinema.Regal auditorium became a sanctuary for those eager to experience William Wyler’s 1959 epic as it was originally intended to be seen in 70mm.Shivendra Singh Dungarpur spoke about the screening as an act of cinematic continuity.He said, “I wanted Mumbai to experience and celebrate Ben Hur in 70mm before Christopher Nolan’s visit to Mumbai to present Odyssey.”Restored with extraordinary care, the film remains one of Hollywood’s defining achievements in large-format filmmaking.

Dungarpur reminded viewers that its legendary chariot race still regarded as one of cinema’s greatest action sequences required five weeks to shoot and relied almost entirely on practical craftsmanship rather than visual effects.He pointed to another historical footnote: Sergio Leone, long before redefining the Western, worked as a second-unit assistant on Ben-Hur, contributing to portions of the race sequence.

He said, "Most of the effects were achieved in camera. There was no computer-generated imagery to rescue the spectacle. It was discipline, planning and craftsmanship." The same values Christopher Nolan continues to champion today.The depth, scale and texture of a 70mm print transformed Ben-Hur into an experience difficult to replicate in the digital era, underscoring why filmmakers such as Nolan continue to advocate for big screen experience.The event also highlighted the growing momentum behind Film Heritage Foundation's revival of restored cinema. Dungarpur announced an ambitious lineup of restored classics scheduled to follow, including Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, celebrated for Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography; Max Ophüls’ The earrings of Madam De; and Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, to be presented from a rare 35mm print.

Before the screening began, Dungarpur urged viewers to silence their phones and respect the communal experience of watching a film together — a ritual increasingly rare in an age of streaming and distraction. If Christopher Nolan’s impending Mumbai visit promised a conversation about the future of filmmaking, Dungarpur’s Ben-Hur screening argued that the future is best understood by first returning to the past. Over a thousand people remained absorbed in a three-and-a-half-hour epic whose visual grandeur has endured for nearly seven decades.