As I remember the old, today

Must I SALUTE the new, also

I noticed a new trend coming back again… so must I write about it, as I liked it very much. In the older times, Hindi movies had painted posters and today, I was pretty surprised to see the same back in 2012.

Two new movies which have not been released yet — Ishqzade and Rowdy Rathore have painted posters. Though I know these may be computer-generated, but still… I so liked them.

So here they are. Have a look:

Ishqzade Poster

Rowdy Rathore Poster

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Come to think of it — there must have been a full industry of people making posters and I sometimes wonder what did the painters do after the computer machines took over with force. They would be then using huge paper sheets, canvas and loads of paints, sketches… few weeks or maybe months in advance, before a movie release. So many workers would have been there… working only for this purpose, which actually is the most important thing for the promotion of a movie as it’s the first impression which drives one to the theatres.

They must be hand painted… later printed… and then stuck up on walls and bill boards well in advance.

Add to this the boys who would carry-paste posters all night ferrying oversize ladders and heavy buckets containing the locally made gum.

Was M.F.Hussain also a product of the poster generation, painting from Delhi’s Chandni Chowk!

I have always loved all the old Hindi movie posters with their distorted faces and imaginative geometrical angles. Maybe because of this liking only, I’ve referred them … like Bobby and Guide … in my earlier posts.

The Eastman colour in the old movies was portrayed in those posters too. The bold messages written on them would be so fascinating.

A good friend of mine Dinesh Shankar Shailendra (Director) informed me today that these posters were of different sizes then. The small ones were called single sheeters which were made for the lampposts. The biggest were called Six sheeters which were made for the billboards. They were six sheets painted separately and then stuck together to make the whole banner for the hoarding. He also told me a very interesting fact that from the time Kala Bazaar was made till very recently, the main bill board on Juhu Beach was reserved for Dev Anand’s NavKetan Films banner. Their poster would be put up at Juhu Beach first then distributed all over.

I wonder many a times where these posters are, as of now. They must be all rolled up and dumped in some godown somewhere — forgotten, unseen and unwanted by anyone anymore. Once the movie is removed from the cinema halls and new movies come up… new posters are flagged and old one are thrown to rot away in some corner and removed / torn apart mercilessly… so many efforts and dreams crushed under debris stacked away for years to come.

Ever since the computer age has come, all these workforce and resources must have been out of demand and out of job too. A whole industry must have come to a stand still and so many rendered jobless, helpless.

Bollywood being the largest movie making industry has given work, homes, food and fodder to many a millions. Some of these poster artists must have made big and some must have changed their line of work. Many of these posters I have spotted in many a restaurants, hotels and some homes too, in recent times.

Well as they say that the ‘Old has to make way for the new’ such has been the ways of the world. So the new takes over and the old resides in some corner or some archives.

Here are few of them for you to refresh your memory ——-

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Gcaffe thanks Dinesh Shankar Shailendra for his valuable inputs.