A Film Poster is not merely a collage of images or piece of information or any colourful design. It is the first information and a publicity tool that attracts cine-goer to watch the movie. Bollywood's film posters have a long and illustrious history, right from 7th July 1896, the first day of screening films in India till today.
Dadasaheb Phalke promoted his film Raja Harishchandra, the first Indian film, through his hand-painted film poster. Since then technology, techniques, ideas and designs have been changing for decades. Starting from 'Raja Harishchandra', the first Indian film, to till today, the posters of Bollywood films have come a long way from broad visible brush strokes with a striking array of colours and typography to modern-day digital prints on glossy sheets.
It included the title of the film and names of the director, producer, writer and the star cast but in Limca Book of Records, the first poster is mentioned of Baburao Painter’s hand-painted poster of his film Maya Bazaar, also known as Vatsala Haran (1923),
Initially, the film posters were text-based. This included the name of the film(title) in large and bold letters, the names of Hero, Heroine, Director, Producer, date of release and cinema hall. Later in 1924, the image of the hero or heroine appeared in posters. This was designed by Painter himself, depicted the heroic and noble side of Shivaji.
With the rise and popularity of printing technology in the country, now film posters were being printed in large scale to be distributed all over the country. These posters were seen on the walls of important streets, barbershops, restaurants, near cinema halls.
There are many persons who have a hobby of collection of film posters. Now, these rare posters are being sold. I present here a journey of Bollywood film posters decade wise. These images are available through google.
