The Art Of Bollywood

by Rajesh Devraj, Edo Bouman, Paul Duncan (Editor)

Hand-painted movie posters that made Bollywood a winner

Since its inception in the second decade of the 20th century, the Bombay-based Indian film industry—Bollywood—has developed a unique visual language, articulated by the vivid hand-painted movie posters that have since become highly-desirable collectors' items. While Bollywood poster artists produced a staggering number of these hand-painted images, their ephemeral work has traditionally been presented unevenly, with shoddy reprints and re-release posters. The Art of Bollywood digs deeper into the tradition, presenting the original art in its true glory—from seldom-seen posters to rare images of street publicity and cinema displays. The text provides a detailed discussion of the works of key artists, in this comprehensive overview of a previously neglected and underrated artistic genre.

Genres: India, Nonfiction, Art, History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2010

Reviews

[Hesper]

Great visual resource for Bollywood film poster history. The accompanying essays are informative, if somewhat snobbish, with a distinct undercurrent of pearl clutching regarding digital art (so soulless! gone are the glory days! goodbye, Real Art!); less of that would have been appreciated.

[Vipul Yadav]

nice

[John]

This is a partial review because I was primarily interested in the Bollywood posters rather than the history of them, though the book does seem to provide a pretty thorough discussion of the development and historical contest of Indian movie posters.

That said, I have to comment on how much the evolution of styles in the Bollywood posters parallels those of Hollywood, both in time/era and graphic expression. Whether in the "noir" movies of the late 1940s and early-mid 1950s, the teen and pop-culture movies of the late 1950s and 1960s, or movies in horror, western, adventure, and thriller genres, Bollywood and Hollywood artists shared similar visual styles. That is the most fun of this book.

[Laura Anne]

Contains plenty of text on the history and background to the poster industry. Many of the pages feature multiple posters. They can seem relatively small if you are expecting full page spreads. Not as flashy as some poster books, but the labeling of each picture is appreciated.

[Paul]

I expected a Taschen Bollywood book to have excellent production values (which it does) but didn't expect the contained essay to be as engaging.

[Paschalia]

Perfect both as a coffee table book, and as thorough art history research in Indian cinema poster art. Engaging photos as well as writing. Pity it's not translated in greek...

[Mahdi]

i have to get a copy of this

[reveurdart]

Very good selection. Being half-Indian, I've obviously had a lifelong love for Indian cinemas. Books like this tend to feel too short, but this is indeed a good overview.