POSTERS AND HINDI FILMS

New delhi, 19 july, (Sunil kumar/VNI) “a great publicity is a high way to remote customers and a universal key to the gate of ignorance” “The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.”

Although the exact origins of hand painted Bollywood movie poster art are relatively unknown, it is widely believed that the art form was born in the 1920s. The use of printed literature for film publicity dates back all the way to the first full-length Indian feature film, Raja Harishchandra, which was released in 1913. Newspaper adverts and handbills were the predominant forms of print publicity in the silent films era. The use of hand painted Bollywood posters in film publicity gradually began to take shape in the 1920s. The oldest surviving hand painted movie poster in Indian cinema is of the 1924 Marathi movie, Kalyan Khajina. The alluring art of hand painted Bollywood posters has traveled a long way since then – from serving as the primary advertising medium in the golden era of Indian cinema to the present day, where it serves as a subject of much curiosity for art lovers, historians, vintage & antique collectors, Bollywood movie poster aficionados, interior decorators, art galleries, museums and commercial premise owners.