From Anthony Quinn to Amitabh Bachchan, he has painted them all. He has painted 20-foot-long angry heroes, pink-cheeked, cherry-lipped heroines, menacing villains and sultry vamps. But when flex and digital printing took over, V. Jeevananthan, president of the Chitrakala Academy and owner of Cine Arts, had to stifle the banner artist in himself. Established by his father N. Velayudham, Cine Arts started off as a banner production company. “As a 26-year-old, my father moved to Coimbatore from Nagercoil to make a living as a banner artist,” recalls Jeevananthan.
From theatre to films
“He had learnt the art form from veteran comedian and theatre artist, N.S. Krishnan, in Srirangam. Krishnan's company used to make banners for their theatrical productions.” It was in 1954, during Deepavali that Velayudham made his first banner. It was for Sivaji Ganesan's “Thooku Thooki”. The banner was placed at Royal Theatre. Prior to that, movie banners used to come from Chennai. Velayudham soon began supplying hand painted banners to theatres in and around the Coimbatore, Nilgiris and Periyar districts.
Velayudham would receive black and white stills from the distributors from which he would create colourful banners. “Colour stills came to Coimbatore only towards the late 70s. Before that, the artist had the freedom to experiment with colours. Why, we would even apply shades of green along with pink on heroine's cheeks!” says Jeevananthan, who started helping his dad at the age of 19. He explains the banner-making process. “The size of a normal banner would be 20x10 feet. Along with that we also made 30 to 40-foot-long cut-outs of actors.” Banners were made on cloth and cut-outs using plywood. “We produced our own canvas from gada cloth. We mixed vajram (a type of gum) and chalk powder, and applied the mixture on the cloth. After that, we coated the cloth with an amalgam of linseed oil and a white base.” Colours were procured from Chennai and Bangalore, and mixed with linseed oil.”
Says Jeevananthan, “We would stand on benches to paint. On the ground would be vats of colours. Painting a banner was hard. It required immense physical strength. Our hands had to span a radius of seven feet!”
Hard work
When Velayudham passed away in 1981, Jeevananthan, who was a law student then, took over Cine Arts. “We didn't have skilled labour in Coimbatore back then. We had to make 50-60 banners in three-four days. I had two assistants with me, who had worked with my father. During Deepavali, around 10 movies used to be released in the city. We had to make 30 banners for each film. In total, we had to make 300 banners, and we'd be given the stills only a week before the film's release.” He says banner art had a huge fan following in Coimbatore.
“While we painted in our shed (at Five Corner), students from nearby schools would stop and stare. There was a point when our banners adorned the entire stretch of Jail Road. You could say that it was Coimbatore's answer to Mount Road. During my father's days, he would install sets in Royal, Carnatic and Raja theatre for MGR and Sivaji's films.” For instance, a Kailasa malai set was erected at Raja theatre for the release of “Thiruvilayadal”.
A Thanjai Periya Kovil set was constructed for “Raja Raja Chozhan” and a huge chess board was placed at Royal theatre during the release of “Gauravam”.
Jeevananthan rues the fact that no one stops and stares at cinema banners anymore. “Back then, posters and banners were a huge deal. Movie posters used to come from Sivakasi.
Cinema buffs would start getting restless a day or two before films released. They would visit our shed and walk along with us as we carried our banners in kai vandis to the theatre. They would be armed with flowers, which subsequently adorned the heroes' necks after the cut-outs were installed.”
While flipping through Jeevananthan's photo albums, one can't help but notice the special attention given to banners of films such as “Sindhubhairavi”, “Oru Veedu, Oru Vaasal” and “Lekhayude Maranam”.
“I would try to make unconventional banners for films directed by my favourite directors. Instead of painting faces, I would experiment with silhouettes and abstract forms. I would do this for films by K. Balachander, Bharathiraja, Mahendran and Balu Mahendra.”
Jeevananthan mentions that a banner's beauty also depended on the facial expressions of the stars. “A face like that of Rajni's, Sivaji's or Vijaykanth's was a delight to paint. We would get a lot of chances to experiment with dark colours and textures on their faces. Whereas, there was no joy in painting an actress' face. All you had to do was apply pink on her cheeks.”
Cine Arts used to supply hand made banners to theatre groups that produced plays in all European languages in Switzerland
Director Manivannan worked as a letter artist with Cine Arts for a short period of time. Art director Mani Raj (of “Osthe” fame) also worked as a banner artist with Jeevananthan
Actor Raghuvaran, who lived in Town Hall near Jeevananthan’s studio, got a banner done for his first film “Ezhavdhu Manidhan” from Cine Arts
