They might not be as colourful as they used to be and do not adorn the streets now. But posters in their modern avatar are still the best means of promotion for filmmakers and most awaited by movie buffs. Team Viva reports

Vidya Balan’s steamy hot avatar in forthcoming film The Dirty Picture as disclosed in the recently-released movie poster made movie-goers go crazy. It also garnered the much-required publicity for the film, slated to release this December. Shah Rukh Khan’s look in his much-awaited dream project Ra.One as revealed in the poster was the most-talked about topic and highlighted the movie will have loads of special effects and techniques.

Reportedly, the bold posters of Murder 2 raised a few eyebrows with the West Bengal Board of Censorship asking for Jacqueline Fernandez’s cleavage to be covered and Emraan Hashmi to get his chest painted if their posters have to be exhibited in Bengal. But distributors feel the movie did good business during its opening week, courtesy these posters. So all those who, for long, rued the vanishing of hand-painted posters with technology and modern promotional methods sweeping Bollywood, should know the focus on posters was never lost. In fact, they have turned bolder and modern and are being loved by Gen Y. Experts say these posters even today are the only means to get 90 per cent of initial publicity for the film with film pundits predicting the success or failure of a movie after getting a first look at them.

In the past, they were an identity for Mumbai and added a splash of bright reds and pinks to its streets. Those images of princess-like heroines and prince-like heroes almost popped out of these hand-painted frames and spoke more of the imaginative tales that Bollywood survived on then. Heavily stylised, with colours brighter than the sun, these posters left an imprint on the mind. Who can forget the impossibly contorted features, knives dripping blood in drops the size of apples, heroes leaping out of blazes and those dreamy eyes?

But then the times changed and so did these posters. Hand-painted hoardings were replaced by graphics and posters created on computers and later came digital posters that returned lost glory and focus to them. As large-format digital printers sprayed out vivid, “real” posters, everybody welcomed them as a mark of advancement and modernity.

Comeback in modern avatar

While there was once a huge hue and cry over dying poster art in Bollywood, the attention has returned and like earlier, when people used to wait for billboards to know what look their favourite hero would be seen in, movie buffs scan movie sites and look out for means to get the glimpse of the forthcoming movies on Internet to know more about the film and the subject that it will be dealing with now. “It is a gradual development process that posters have undergone in Bollywood. Hand-painted posters were the only means of film publicity during the 60s, then as technology improved, the popularity of posters got affected. Recently, the craze of posters has returned. But the difference is that now the focus is on design and the digital posters are in,” says movie critic and analyst Taran Adarsh who has witnessed the rise and fall in popularity in posters.

Kumar Rao, a movie distributor, agrees that in small towns, posters are the only way to inform people about to-be released films. “We have a movie buff in every home in India but we still don’t have an Internet access everywhere, so for those who can’t view the posters online, posters in their physical form are the means to keep themselves well-informed,” he says.

As a tool of promotion

If you want to know how popular posters have been with Indian masses and how much they have been loved by foreigners, try finding out how many websites sell vintage posters and designing stuff for you based on Indian poster art. And you will find a number of them producing and selling things inspired by Indian movie posters. Be it for the people who are in the business of movie making or not, they have helped many in minting money. “Our website was as instant hit and ever since the era of hand-painted posters went out, the demand for vintage posters saw a rise. So it’s no surprise that people are loving posters in digital format and are a great promotional tool,” says Hinesh Chitwani from Indian Hippy. Insiders estimate that poster art has the potential of becoming a multi-million rupee industry over the next few years as the markets for products are getting bigger all over the world.

Director Vikram Bhatt agrees and says that no promotional method is better than poster format. “It is not possible for the crew to go everywhere and promote the film so posters are the safest and easiest bet,” he says.

The bolder, the better?

It seems from the kind of posters that we had recently had, the bolder the poster is the better it is. They are like a well-drafted, impressive and tempting menu served before the spicy dish. The popularity of posters of movies like Kurbaan, Murder 2, Ishqiya and Aitraaz are perfect examples. But Bhatt says the focus is to present the concept of the movie. “Design plays an important part and posters of movies like Aamir and A Wednesday were also loved. So attention is paid on the design as posters since ages have been associated with adding value to the film aesthetically so now good design and concept has taken over the bright colours,” he says.

Milan Luthria once commented on the bold portrayal of Vidya Balan in the movie posters that “before people could even see the trailor, a good poster helps in increasing the curiosity and making people more aware about the movie.”