Talks
Posterwala: The Era of Painted Film Posters
Dinesh Khemani
Song Booklet of the film Guide, 1965, POP 23998 (Courtesy: Richa and Jamshed Chinoy Collection)
The art of painting posters for film publicity began a decade after the first feature-length film was made in 1913. Since the 1930s hand-painted posters have pervaded the urban landscape (along with small towns in India), featuring arresting images of Hindi cinema stars. Some artists were trained in the Bombay art school, while others learned on the job to paint these posters.
Through this talk, Dinesh Khemani from MAP, will shed light on various aspects of the bygone art of hand-painted film posters, primarily focusing on Bombay Hindi cinema posters. He will delve into the narratives of artists grappling with the accelerating demand to create aesthetic images that draw audiences into the theatre; the complex network of the film publicity business; and the aesthetic sensibility they deployed to create these captivating images. He will also highlight how some of these images may have moved beyond their intended purpose of communication into being seen as art.
Bookings
Bookings are closed for this event.
Dinesh Khemani
Project Lead and Senior Researcher for the Digitisation Project at MAP
Dinesh Khemani has an undergraduate degree in Mass Media from Jai Hind College, Mumbai and a Masters in Film Studies from Jadavpur University. After having worked in the film industry, Dinesh veered off into academics and has been teaching Cinema History and Film Appreciation in various colleges across Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. He currently works as a Project Lead and Senior Researcher for the Digitisation Project at MAP. His research interests at MAP have focused on the historical films of Sohrab Modi, the 1950s social films, narrative conventions of Indian cinema and the evolution of poster art in Bombay cinema.
Dinesh’s interests are varied — including Cinema, Art History, Anthropology, Literature and Philosophy. In his free time, he tries to catch up on reading and likes to explore filmmaking and art.
