New Delhi: The Odyssey was released in India on Friday, but the Indian audiences will not be able to experience it in the format filmmaker Christopher Nolan intended. Although the film is playing in IMAX across nearly 34 theatres in the country, Indian commercial theatres lack the functional 15/70mm IMAX film projectors required to experience the true essence of The Odyssey.
Traditional multiplex screens and even standard digital IMAX screens use a wide, rectangular 1.90:1 aspect ratio. True IMAX 15/70mm, however, uses the much taller 1.43:1 aspect ratio, which is almost square. The towering screen extends from floor to ceiling, filling a viewer’s field of vision. Directors like Nolan compose their shots specifically for this format.
When these films are projected on standard digital IMAX screens, the top and bottom portions of the frame are cropped to fit the wider aspect ratio, meaning audiences literally miss a significant part of the imagery the director intended them to see.
India once could screen films in this format. Hyderabad’s Prasads IMAX previously housed a 15/70mm projector, where audiences watched films like Interstellar. However, the projector was later decommissioned when the theatre shifted to digital IMAX.
Today, the country’s only remaining operational 15/70mm IMAX projector is located at the Science City in Ahmedabad, but it is reserved exclusively for educational documentaries and short films. Commercial feature films, including Nolan’s The Odyssey, cannot be screened there.
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Global shift in cinema
This is not just India’s problem; it reflects a global shift in cinema exhibition. The industry has almost universally moved towards digital projection because operating an authentic IMAX 70mm system is a mechanical and logistical challenge. A single IMAX 70mm print of an epic like The Odyssey stretches over 17 kilometres of film and weighs nearly 240 kilograms.
An IMAX 70mm projector is roughly the size of a small hatchback, generates immense heat, and requires specialised operators, making it expensive and logistically demanding to maintain. As a result, most theatres worldwide have shifted to digital projection.
Nolan fans in India can visit screens such as PVR Select City Walk (Delhi), Miraj Cinemas, Wadala (Mumbai), PVR VR Mall (Bengaluru), PVR Palazzo (Chennai), PVR Palladium Mall (Ahmedabad), INOX South City Mall (Kolkata), and others across major cities. But The Odyssey is only available in digital IMAX, leaving audiences without the true 15/70mm experience.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)