India's Film Poster Heritage

Posters, especially the hand-painted ones, represent a fragility. It is now a dead art, but India is one of the last few countries to have kept it alive. India’s Film Poster Heritage showcases many original designs which are still not available on the global internet, such as that of Tarana (1951) by SM Pandit—a painter from Karnataka who designed film publicity material for Raj Kapoor and others.

With its focus on preserving the cinematic heritage of India, the volume specifically highlights designers and artists who are not well-known for their work as poster artists, including legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Works of poster designers like DR Bhosale (Main Nashe Mein Hoon, 1959), Pamart Studios (Haqeeqat, 1964 and Khamoshi, 1969), Diwakar Karkare (Sholay, 1975 and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, 1973) and C Mohan (Khatta Meetha, 1978) are part of this collection. There is also one of the most elusive original release versions of the Awara (1951) poster. In special spotlight is the first family of Indian films: the Kapoors. Their cinematic journey is highlighted through their poster art. Three unique versions of Shashi Kapoor’s Juari (1968) are seen here for the first time.

As a tribute to the stalwarts such as Dilip Kumar, Saira Banu, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna and the cinema of Satyajit Ray and Bimal Roy, this collection includes posters of landmark films from Mughal-e-Azam to Shatranj ke Khiladi, from Mother India to Satyakam, from Khamoshi to Majboor. No other exhibition or collection yet has ever placed so many first release original design Indian film posters together for public sale. This auction and publication is a step in the direction of preserving and galvanizing interest in our paper-based cinematic heritage.