Bollywood Posters - Trends Since 1930 To 2010

Bollywood
posters
Trends | 1913 to 2010
the POSTER is both an ADVERTISEMENT and a CULTURAL ICON the POSTER is both an ADVERTISEMENT an
POSTER
CULTURAL
ICON
ADVERTISEMENT
RANJANI MAZUMDAR
1913
to
1960
1960
to
1970
1970
to
1980
1980
to
1990
1990
to
2000
2000
to
2010
Titles
Titles
A look at the titles on the Bollywood posters right from the first talkie- Raja Harishchandra till date
reveals several trend. Quite a few of them are time and technology specific but some make a comeback sev-
eral years after they were first spotted. Below are the trends in movie titles of the poster as I have spotted
them. The names given are my opinions and not the industry standard or some such.
Clean/ empty/ monocoloured

titles with black casing
Alphabet squishing into each

other, black casing
Bevelled metallic lettering

Celtic style lettering
monocolour type with non

black/ white coloured casing
Type along diagonals / waves

3D perspective, WORDARTlike
Gradients
Lettering inspired from

“Westerns“ cowboy movies
Pulpy/ Horror lettering
Typography in Satyajit Ray

films was a genre in self
Lettering and shadow

Lettering along concave/
convex arcs
This is cutting edge in movie

title design for Bollywood
and was inspired by various
international movements in
art and society. From hippie
movement to avant Garde to
Viennese graphic work
Unconventional typefaces
here Skia and Papyrus
Vertical title blocks

Titles 90s onwards
90s, 1992 to be precise ushered in digital technology for poster making in Bollywood. Pioneered by Rahul
Nanda of HR enterprises, this was to change the face of Bollywood publicity design forever, for better or
for worse is debatable. Following trends emerge in movie titles around the turn of the millennium.
Title-object, object-title
Humane-cursive looking
Calligraphic
Fancy decorative
Futuristic
Grunge-distorted
Hand-written
Indianized English
Boards-labels-frames
(rectangles)
Noir
Simple, minimalist, clean type
Classic, fantasy, flourishes
Playful, cheerful, comic book

Major titling trends till 90s:
3D, perspective, WORDART like and Westerns (cowboys) inspired.
Major trends of 90s and millennium:
Simple, minimalistic, clean looking typefaces, modern-chic
Char-
acters
Expressions | Themes | Portrayal of Gender | Hierarchy
Number of Characters:
• Solitary hero- all powerful, brave and kind
• Twos, couple- A story of a couple in love or a story of two brothers as in Deewar. denotes, dualities on the same
given subject. To portray two radically opposite perspectives at the same time.
• Three, Triangle or a trio- Either a love triangle, or a team of three accomplishing a task.
• Team of four or two couples or a couple, a wamp and a villain.
• Ensemble caste- More than four characters on the poster
Characters look at:

• 60s- the hero looked out of the poster but away from audience, staring into space.
• 90s- onwards almost every character essentially looks out of the poster at audience.
Gender of Characters:
• A man was portrayed as strong, in control, kind in case of a hero and cunning, treacherous, scheming
incase of an anti hero. Role of men as comics was acknowledged and mentioned on posters.
• A woman could be portrayed as a shy demure wife, always looking towards the bottom of the poster and a bold
wamp is the only character in 60s to actually look out from the poster and at audience, as if inviting their attention
or a loving, caring, generous mother who is often portrayed helpless.
Expressions of actors/ themes:

• 50s- rural living, seeking liberation, expression etc
• 60s- Full of variety of emotions as described in Navarasa, Natyashastra
• 70s- Angry young man, the chase, thrill & rebellion
• 80s- Drama in human relationships, life complexities
• 90s- Joy, love, urban living, underworld, society etc
• 00s- ‘Star’ness of a star dominant than his/her character in the film, colour-correction
• 10s- International chic, crossover cinema, colour-correction, society, life, sex and violence being
portrayed in very many ways. Expression wise indifference/ sorry state of the lead character (wake up
sid) and suspension of morality (DEV. D. and Oye Lucky), celebration of dark and the underdogs
Hierarchy of characters:
Has more or less remained same since earlier days and is established using variation in size, alignment,
opacity, blurring/sharpness (i.e variations in focus) w.r.t. the characters on the poster.
De-
sign
Process | Colours | Layouts - Framing | Display |
Process
Beginning to 1980- Original Hand painted, mass produced by Lithography
1980 to 1992- Photography, Photography combined with hand painting called Cut-Paste method
1992 till date- Digital
Colours
1913 to 1960
1961 to 1970
1971 to 1980
1981 to 1990
1991 to 2000
2001 to 2010
Colour trends Master pallete
till 50s
till 60s
till 70s
till 80s
till 90s
till 10s
Layout - Framing
Bollywood poster
From street art
to high art
Anec-
dotes
Poster | Art | Artists
• Today posters have transformed from street art to high art.
• The earliest surviving Hindi film poster is that of a 1924 film called Kalyan Khajina, designed and
painted by the film director Baburao Painter.
• The size of an actor’s face on the poster directly reflected his prominence and stardom.
• At Osian’s auction in 2002, an original poster from Dev Anand classic Guide sold for Rs. 1.8 lakh while
highest selling film poster at the same gallery have been Sangam and Russian version of Kabuli walla-
sold for Rs 2.5 Lakh each.
• For preserving hand-painted posters of yester year, each one is painstakingly first de-acidified and
then preserved with alkaline neutraliser and hand-made Nepali paper.
• Diwakar Karkare worked with the best in Hindi film industry creating iconic posters for Deewar,
Sholay, Don, Amar Akbar Anthony. His signature technique being over painting with a knife.
• Diwakar Karkare was the highest paid poster artist in the industry, hiking his price from Rs. 30,000
to Rs. 50,000 for Manmohan Desai’s Mard after the film Daag became a hit.
Overview of trends in Bollywood posters
Bollywood posters have changed responding to changing technology, social milieu and evolving visual
culture in India. The posters are an cultural icon and an advertisement.They make information about new
releases available to people on the street and borrow heavily from the Nav-Rasa theory of Natya Shastra
while they are at it.
• The Indian poster has been influenced by several international art movements like the Avant Garde,
Art Nouveau, Viennese graphic work, the Pyscedellic art of the 60s as well as the westerns and the
typography native to them.
• The typography of Bollywood posters mimics the West largely and lacks an Indian idiom except for the
work of Satyajit Ray and a couple of calligraphic works by Achyut Palav.
• Apart from the consistently common layouts through the decades every decade brought in atypical
designs.
• Highest grossing films did not necessarily have the best posters. Posters from parallel cinema and
Satyajit Ray films had very vibrant posters.
Titling trends
Major titling trends till 90s:

3D, perspective, WORDART like and Westerns (cowboys) inspired.
Major trends of 90s and millennium:
Simple, minimalistic, clean looking typefaces, modern-chic
Colour trends Master pallete
till 50s
till 60s
till 70s
till 80s
till 90s
till 10s
Trends in character depiction
Number of Characters:
• Solitary hero- all powerful, brave and kind
• Twos, couple- A story of a couple in love or a story of two brothers as in Deewar. denotes, dualities on the same
given subject. To portray two radically opposite perspectives at the same time.
• Three, Triangle or a trio- Either a love triangle, or a team of three accomplishing a task.
• Team of four or two couples or a couple, a wamp and a villain.
• Ensemble caste- More than four characters on the poster
Characters look at:

• 60s- the hero looked out of the poster but away from audience, staring into space.
• 90s- onwards almost every character essentially looks out of the poster at audience.
Gender of Characters:
• A man was portrayed as strong, in control, kind in case of a hero and cunning, treacherous, scheming
incase of an anti hero. Role of men as comics was acknowledged and mentioned on posters.
• A woman could be portrayed as a shy demure wife, always looking towards the bottom of the poster and a bold
wamp is the only character in 60s to actually look out from the poster and at audience, as if inviting their attention
or a loving, caring, generous mother who is often portrayed helpless.
Expressions of actors/ themes:

• 50s- rural living, seeking liberation, expression etc
• 60s- Full of variety of emotions as described in Navarasa, Natyashastra
• 70s- Angry young man, the chase, thrill & rebellion
• 80s- Drama in human relationships, life complexities
• 90s- Joy, love, urban living, underworld, society etc
• 00s- ‘Star’ness of a star dominant than his/her character in the film, colour-correction
• 10s- International chic, crossover cinema, colour-correction, society, life, sex and violence being
portrayed in very many ways. Expression wise indifference/ sorry state of the lead character (wake up
sid) and suspension of morality (DEV. D. and Oye Lucky), celebration of dark and the underdogs
Hierarchy of characters:
Has more or less remained same since earlier days and is established using variation in size, alignment,
opacity, blurring/sharpness (i.e variations in focus) w.r.t. the characters on the poster.
Atypical posters
This poster of Bobby is reminiscent of the Procol Harum concert
poster of 1969 by Lee Conkin, whose forte was psychedelic art
The typography of Bazaar bears an uncanny resemblance to Otto

Wagner’s work
The Taare Zameen Par poster marks the return of hand work
albeit the scanned-digitized-printed one.
Grattitude
I have made use of several write-ups, images, articles, research papers from the internet to put this trends’
document together and I am thankful for people and their knowledge sharing tendencies the credits are as
follows, some website I may not have mentioned, but I will try and update the credit list soon. Thanks!
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/miss/archives/013860.shtml
http://images.travelpod.com/users/zolab/1.1226921820.bollywood-posters.jpghttp://www.hindustan-
times.com/rssfeed/newdelhi/Classic-Bollywood-posters-a-click-away/Article1-535695.aspx
http://www.randomspecific.com/bollywood-poster-wallas
http://www.thehotspotonline.com/eyecandy/index.htm
http://www.impawards.com/
Special thanks to my guide Prof. Ravi Poovaiah for giving me such an assignment.

Bollywood Posters - Trends Since 1930 To 2010

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Título original

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Bollywood Posters - Trends Since 1930 To 2010

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Bollywood

Clean/ empty/ monocoloured

Alphabet squishing into each

Bevelled metallic lettering

monocolour type with non

Type along diagonals / waves

Lettering inspired from

Typography in Satyajit Ray

Lettering and shadow

This is cutting edge in movie

Vertical title blocks

Classic, fantasy, flourishes

Playful, cheerful, comic book

Characters look at:

Expressions of actors/ themes:

1992 till date- Digital

From street art

Major titling trends till 90s:

Colour trends Master pallete

Characters look at:

Expressions of actors/ themes:

The typography of Bazaar bears an uncanny resemblance to Otto

Você também pode gostar