‘A poster is the menu card of a movie’
From the fifties to the nineties, there were two types of posters — hand-painted and illustrated
Nine years after the partition of the country, the first full-length talkie film, Mukh O Mukhosh, was released in Dhaka in 1956.
At the time, publicity of a movie meant mostly newspaper advertisements. To this date, experts debate whether the movie had a poster or not.
The first movie posters historians agree on was of the 1959 film Jago Hua Savera, AJ Kardar's Urdu film based on Manik Bandyopadhyay's Padmanadir Majhi.
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The poster for this was designed by Subhash Dutt, the man who later directed Sutarang and coincidentally was also the publicist for Mukh O Mukhosh.
He started with Lily Talkies in Dinajpur where he worked on posters or show cards for films made in Kolkata or Bombay (now Mumbai).
In 1951, he moved to Bombay and began working for a publicity firm called Pamart.
There, Marathi artists used to make posters, banners, show-cards or booklets with watercolour, spray, pencil and charcoal. Within a short time, Subhash mastered the process and style.
Later, he came to Dhaka in 1953 and got a job in Evergreen Publicity with a salary of Tk110. After some time, together with three non-Bangalees, Subhash established a publicity house called Kamart in 1955.
He made the poster of some more movies, including Rajdhanir Buke (1960), Harano Din (1961), Binimoy (1970), Suryakanya (1976), Bashundhara (1977) and Rupali Saikate (1979).
Subhash also drew the posters of all the movies directed by him.
Three more poster artists
Azizur Rahman and Nitun Kundu are also among the first generation poster artists. Nitun Kundu is the designer of some modern sculptures of the country including the Saarc fountain in Dhaka. He is also the founder of Otobi, a popular furniture maker of the country.
Subhash Dutt brought Nitun Kundu to Dhaka and got him a job at Evergreen Publicity. Recognising his talent in painting, Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin admitted him to the Art College.
Azizur Rahman also studied in the Art College, but movies were an addiction for him. He would stand and stare at the movie posters for a long time. He later became a well-known director and producer in the country.
Publicity houses of the time also used to design the labels of bidi, cigarette, and essential oil along with different types of signboards. Non-Bangalee Muslims coming from India also joined the publicity houses. Two brothers, Ladla and Dularawere, were prominent among them.
There were three groups of commercial artists in Dhaka in the 1960s. One group would design movie posters, the other would draw movie banners and paintings, and the third would paint on rickshaws or trucks.
Among the most famous poster designers of the '60s was Girin Das, whose master was Gulfam. Girin Das influenced movie posters of the '70s and '80s also. He designed the posters of many prominent movies such as Jowar Elo (1962), Nayantara (1967), Abujh Mon (1972), Alor Michil (1974), Sujan Sakhi (1975), Dasyu Banahur (1978), Altabanu (1982)and Beder Meye Josna (1989).
The way posters were made
From the fifties to the nineties, there were two types of posters — hand-painted and illustrated. It took a lot of time to make a hand-painted poster. The hand-painted poster of Zaheer Raihan's Beder Meye, starring Azim, Sujata and Rosy, is very interesting. Only those three actors are in the poster. Faces of Azim and Sujata have been drawn at the top while Rosy is standing at the bottom right with a snake cage on her head. The words Beder Meye seems to have been printed being cut out of tin. The poster can be seen on the wall at the second floor of Bangladesh Film Archive in Agargaon. In that open gallery, posters of Jibon Theke Neya, Devdas, and Beder Meye Josnacan can also be seen.
The posters which were said to be illustrations were a combination of still photography and drawing. After making the layout of the poster on a hardboard, the pictures of the actors were put on it. Then the artist painted the empty space and the background. However, since the still photos were enlarged for the posters, the painters used to use pen and ink on the eyes, faces, noses or clothes of the heroes and heroines.
Watercolours were usually used in the background. The black and white steel photos were then painted with transparent colours. At that time, the artists enjoyed full freedom in designing the poster.
In the book Bangladesher Cholochitro Posterer Biborton, published by Bangladesh Film Archive and written by Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain and Tania Sultana, film director Matin Rahman says, "Posters are meant to tell the story of the film to the audience. So important scenes used to come up in the poster. At times, the director even used to freeze a shot to use it in a poster."
The famous publicity houses of Dhaka at that time were Evergreen, Jupiter, Allied, and Chitrokor.
Printing the poster
Printing the poster was a difficult task before the independence of the country. Once the poster was designed, it was set on a board and photographed with a camera. Then the negative was made positive. The negative of the camera film was black and white. In the case of colour posters, filters were used on the negatives. Different colours were added to the posters using different colour filters. For example, if it was a four-colour poster, the negative was at first made with a red filter. Other colours did not come in the negative. Then one by one the filters of different colours were used.
The size of the poster paper was 23 inches by 36 inches. There was no film to capture something so big on camera. So, when the negative was made positive, it was divided into upper and lower parts.
Offset printing press was first introduced in the country in 1965 by one Imdadul Huq through his printing house Imart. Earlier, offset printing was done in Kolkata. Posters used to shine more when done in offset printing. The poster of the Urdu film Poonam Ki Raat (1966) was first printed in offset by Bidesh Kumar Dhar. Dhar said, "Imdadul Haque could print exactly the way an artist designed a poster. His ideas in printing were marvellous. However, the press did not last long because it was very costly."
Static images were often used in posters in the fifties and sixties and there were not many characters.
Talking about the poster of Chanda (1962), Azizur Rahman reminisced, "The poster was made centring the young lovers of the film, and at the bottom the photo of the villain was used. But the film is about a woman named Chanda who was missing in the poster. At that time, the artists used to enjoy greater freedom."
Few movies were released in the fifties and sixties. A total of 400 or 500 posters were made for a film, costing Tk50-Tk100. The total number of movies released between 1956 and 1971 is 208. Later, famous painters like Murtaza Bashir, Qayyum Chowdhury and Hashem Khan also painted movie posters.
The disciple of Girin Das
The movie posters were not the only tool for publicity. Producers also used to make lobby cards or press cards. Azizur Rahman famously promoted his movie on a match box.
The names of movies were also printed on polybags and distributed in the market.
During the 60s and 70s, a book was available outside cinema halls containing the songs and storylines of every movie. The name of the actors and other persons associated with the movie was also included in the book.
The audience could buy the books before or after watching the movies.
Bidesh Kumar Dhar, popularly known as BKD and a disciple of Girin Das, is considered the pioneer of the movie poster industry. He has been working in the field since 1965.
His maternal uncle was Pitalram Sur, one of the earliest wall painters of films made in Dhaka. BKD learned oil painting from his uncle. He learned watercolour from Jyotirmoy Sur and Girin Das taught him how to combine everything. He came to the film world in 1961. From 1965, he became a master himself. He did not want to leave the country in 1971, but was finally forced to leave by his family. However, it was on the condition that if the country becomes independent, he would not stay in India for a single day.
While in Kolkata during the liberation war, he continued painting. He designed a puja mandap which received the Swarna Kamal in West Bengal.
BKD designed numerous movie posters including Alibaba (1967), Alo Tumi Aleya (1975), Manihar (1976), Anarkali (1980), Alif Laila (1980), Laili Majnu (1983), Awara (1985), Balyasiksha (1986), Aina Bibir Pala (1991) ), and Danga (1992).
His Manihar movie poster has been forged many times as an election poster.
It featured the photos of the main characters in the locket of a necklace and other characters in adjacent smaller lockets.
He received the Producers Association award for the poster of Aina Bibir Pala.
BKD always wanted to do something new. He did not want to follow the path of others. That is why BKD is called the pioneer of poster art in the golden age of Bengali film.
Lutfar Rahman was another famous, albeit out-of-the-box poster maker. He made the posters for many films of Amjad Hossain and Alamgir Kabir. For example, he designed the posters of Golapi Ekhon Traine (1978) and Bhat De (1984).
In the 70s, dynamic images triumphed over static ones. Researchers believe that the liberation war and the change of the political winds were the main reasons for this.
Before, pictures were mainly of the socio-romantic genre. After independence, artists started making action movies. Moreover, foreign films played a role in the look and design of movie posters.
Foriegn adult movie posters showed the attractive bodies of actors and actresses, instead of trying to capture the story.
Seeing that, producers began to demand such posters. In 1986, Azad Rahman made a picture called Gopan Kotha. The poster also contained the first sex education picture of the subcontinent in Bengali.
However, in the seventies, fantasy films like Data Hatem Tai, Badsha, Bahadur etc. started to be made. The posters of these films showed the presence of snakes, jinns, fairies, etc, along with armed cavalry, running horses, armaments, etc.
In 1976, posters in offset printing (Fine Art Press, Udayan Press) started being printed again in Dhaka. They had separate sections for cameras, positives, plates and printing. So producers and distributors did not have to run to different places.
Mohammad Shoaib, Mohammad Hanif Pappu and Zvin Babul are some of the people who were involved in making movie posters in the seventies and eighties.
Into the '80s
In addition to the commercial artist, some other people involved in the film also played important roles in the poster designs.
One such is Nazir Hossain, a film still photographer. According to BKD, Nazir Hossain's idea in poster design was very clear. Besides, FDC's set director Sabuj has also worked on numerous posters such as Apon Par, Tora Manush Ha etc.
In the 80s, religion also made its presence known in politics, which led to more fantasy films. That is why the posters of Alibaba, Alif Layla, Baghdader Chor, Abe Hayat, Naseeb, Insaf etc are adorned with Arab women, swords, horsemen, gunfights, fire, saints, snakes, and even monkeys.
Folk fantasies like Chandidas and Rajkini (1987), Behula Laxmindar (1988) etc. were created at that time. Besides, farmers Nazrul Islam and Amjad Hossain have also made literary and village based films.
At the end of the decade, social unrest changed posters again, as bloody faces, motorcycles , scenes of terror etc.
Matin Rahman has said that the movie poster is like a menu. So, it's best that it gives all the names of those in the movies.
Whose name goes first is an area of contention. For instance, if there were two superstars in a film, there would be conflict. Gazi Mazharul Anwar's Bicharpati (1985) can be said to be one such film. The two superstars in this film were Alamgir and Sohail Rana. The director had asked the poster designer to put Alamgir's name first.. Later, Sohail Rana kicked up a storm demanding to know who made the decision.
With the advent of colour photography, the designs of movie posters have changed. Poster designers now try to make posters more attractive and commercially-appealing. Many movies in the '90s were also remakes of Hindu romantic movies, so brides, grooms and flowers became dominant elements.
During this time, Kazi Hayat revived the action genre to some extent and knives, weapons and screams returned to movie posters.
Many of the famous posters of old can still be seen at the Bangladesh Film Archive Library.
