Hobbies are ubiquitous and so is being star-struck; but how many of us convert such offshoots of childhood and youth into something more memorable and noteworthy? Film historian SMM Ausaja is one of those rare people who went down the less-trodden path to come up with an exhaustive literary offering that encapsulates the journey of Indian cinema, via its posters! Ausaja spoke about six years of work that finally manifested as a coffee-table book Bollywood In Posters . Excerpts
What began your long-standing alliance with Bollywood posters?
Actually, it started with a lifetime fascination with Bollywood, which led me to collect posters and other film memorabilia such as slides, lobby-cards, song-booklets and LP record covers. The turning point was when, as an eight-year-old in Shahjahanpur, I saw Amitabh Bachchan’s “Suhaag”.
I was so mesmerised that not only did I become an admirer of the actor but also got hooked onto Hindi films. Three years later, I began collecting Bollywood memorabilia and before I knew it my collection grew so large that I began to unravel and understand the fascinating journey of Indian cinema.
Why did you choose only posters for this book?
When I decided to compile a book that would showcase the history of Indian cinema I found posters told the tale best. They seemed the best mirrors of this long journey. Posters have been a prominent connecting force between viewers and the film from the beginning.
At a personal level too, I have always found posters fascinating! The artistic representation of stars intrigued me. So I thought a compilation of posters a befitting medium to articulate my thoughts.
However, I must mention here that my other collections were equally helpful in creating Bollywood in Posters . I got a lot of information from magazines, LP covers, song-booklets etc.
Is this book an ode of sorts to poster artists; people who generally went unsung?
Absolutely! During my travels abroad, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, I realised that here poster-art is relegated to kitsch; whereas abroad it finds respect at par with other fine arts. It is only today that with more Indians becoming global citizens, we have become aware that film posters are actually a very intrinsic and important part of our film history.
But poster artists have gone unsung and unrecognised, despite their immense contributions to Bollywood. Apart from D.D. Neroy, we had/have many talented names like Mulgaonkar, Diwakar Karkare, A. Rauf, Prithvi Soni whose work needs to reach the younger generation.
Can you tell us a bit about your personal journey in compilingBollywood in Posters?
It was an exhilarating, memorable and a learning process. I was lucky to get inputs and guidance from people like Feroze Rangoonwala and Shahabuddin Mohammad who were a treasure trove of information!
My book is not just about posters; it also contains vignettes about each film, its star cast, its popular songs and it was difficult to source the information for old films (from 1930s to 1960s).
I managed to find a handful of veterans who graciously gave me some invaluable inputs. I also had to visit several film archives, source innumerable permissions to use the posters that I did not have in my collection, restore some very old posters to make them usable for printing ... It took more than six years but it has been one of the most fulfilling ventures!
Trends in the posters and poster-making over these seven decades?
Many differences, not just aesthetically, but even in the manner of representation. They make a telling comment on the changing socio-political or socio-religious scenarios.
Early film posters (of the 1930s and 1940s) have religious overtones or portray women in demure clothes. Film-making was in a nascent stage and had not quite got popular approval. Such posters told people that films were wholesome entertainment for the family!
Then came the 1950s and 1960s when films gained social acceptance and ‘stars’ came to the fore. Thus, actors like Ashok Kumar, Nargis and Madhubala became more prominent. The 1970s saw the emergence of action heroes like Amitabh Bachchan and a number of socially-oriented films.
The 1990s and the present decade has been the most volatile, with newer concepts, formats and treatments. Aesthetically, posters went from being lithographic to offset to the present digital ones, with each having its own beauty.
Do you think digitalisation has made the original hand painted poster extinct?
On the contrary, with digitalisation, hand painted posters (which have definitely become extinct in terms of being practised as an art) have appreciated in value! People are now waking up to the emotional undercurrents in hand painted posters! A hand painted poster will fetch as much as Rs. 1,00,000 today.
You seem to be more inclined towards Amitabh Bachchan’s films in the book.
I don’t deny that a lot of his films have been incorporated in the book but I have definitely not been partial. It’s just that Amitabh Bachchan is probably the only star who has been ruling for four decades now! Obviously, there will be more of his films! It is the films that I have chosen; not the artiste.
Having said that, I don’t want to deny that I am a huge admirer of his. In fact, I was thrilled as a child in a candy shop when I got him to write the foreword. He was also very curious about the whole project and offered me some very interesting inputs and suggestions, for which I’ll always be grateful.
What were the parameters for selecting the films in the book?
The foremost was that the film should have been a landmark in that particular decade. It need not have set the box office jingling - in fact, many films included in the book were dismal flops when first released - but it should be a film whose mention takes you back to that particular decade. Apart from that, of course, one had to drop certain films due to lack of posters and/or information; and of course space constraints.
Lastly, future plans? A sequel to this book probably including those films you couldn’t include?
Well, I’ve not thought on those lines for I’m still soaking in the completion and hearty response this one got; but I’m now working towards a book about the Bachchan family charting the hugely successful journeys of Amitabh, Jaya, Abhishek and Aishwarya.
I’d also like to do something to make our younger generation more aware about our rich film history.
