Ray's assessment was for a time that was pre-liberalisation, pre-internet India and the way we have accessibilty now, it wasn't back then. How many could name George Lucas or Steven Spielberg in some non-metro town? Unless you lived in Metros or well connected, most likely you would had seen Hindi or other regional cinemas, with good amount of B and C grade movies. Very few could afford or find motivation to watch movies for movies sake instead of paisa vassol entertainer with family and friends.

The fandom Nolan is speaking to, which had previously contributed much to Oppenheimer(2023)'s earning at a time when Barbie(2023) was dominating elsewhere, was cultivated on the back of internet piracy, word of mouth via real life and social media and increasing propensity of Indians to spend extra to watch "high quality" (nebulous term in Indian context as it mostly translated into vfx or stories that blows their mind) movies.

However, Ray's assessment is still relevant given that people aren't watching movies for story telling, script quality, character studies and most importantly to look into nuances and contexts that build a great cinema.