Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster

ボリウッド手描きポスター / 1930s–1990s / Style / Regional Graphics

Mumbai's poster workshops painted film advertising in oil on giant canvases. Saturated color, montages of several scenes and exaggerated star faces ruled the Indian street for half a century, until digital printing arrived.

Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster — Anarkali film poster 1953 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Anarkali film poster 1953 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster — Amar Deep film poster 1958 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Amar Deep film poster 1958 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster — メヘブーブ・プロダクションズ映画『アノーキー・アダー』ポスター 1948年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — メヘブーブ・プロダクションズ映画『アノーキー・アダー』ポスター 1948年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Oil-paint brushwork
Saturated color
Exaggerated faces, multiple scenes
Hand-painted Devanagari lettering

Best used for

Announcements for film or music that need the heat of a painted hand
Interiors for restaurants and events that want street painting density

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Dictionary entry

Type: Titles painted by hand with shadow and outline, sitting in front
Composition: The star's face largest, with smaller scenes swirling around it
Material: Oil laid thickly on cloth, saturation high and brushmarks visible
Caution: Faking the brushwork by filtering a photograph skips the step of recomposing as painting, so the scale of faces and scenes stops meaning anything.
Further study: the workshop system of poster painters / M. F. Husain's apprenticeship / extinction by digital printing and the collecting boom

Related entries

Ghanaian Movie Poster (ガーナ手描き映画ポスター)Same Regional Graphics lineage.Compare Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster and Ghanaian Movie Poster
Circus Poster (サーカスポスター)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Play / Nostalgia.Compare Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster and Circus Poster

Often confused with

Ghanaian Movie Poster (ガーナ手描き映画ポスター)compare

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