NFAI acquires rich haul of 2500 Film Posters

A rare 6-sheet poster of Mughal-e-Azam is a part of the collection

In one of the major acquisition in recent times, NFAI has acquired about 2500 film posters of Indian cinema. The collection includes about 1500 Hindi film posters, in addition to a number of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam ones. These posters range from 1942 onwards till recent times. The collection showcases the evolution of film publicity covering various techniques of poster-making.

The highlight of the acquisition is a very rare 6-sheet poster of Mughal-e-Azam (1960). The poster consists of six separate sheets and is of the dimensions 10 ft x 5 ft. It’s an offset print of a hand-painted poster. Thanks to its massive size, the poster achieves the astonishing feat of conveying volumes about the film. The poster has everything – from long shot depictions of the war sequence to a colourful snapshot of the sheesh mahal sequence, all done in beautiful brushstrokes.

To balance the grandeur of these two depictions, the poster also features two intimate portraits. Akbar (Prithviraj Kapoor) sheds a tear in an emotional moment with his son and heir Salim (Dilip Kumar) as they are about to go to war. The shadow of Akbar’s war gear on his face is gorgeously detailed. And to cap things off, there’s a heartrending portrait of Anarkali (Madhubala) in chains, one of the iconic images of Hindi cinema.

Another highlight of the acquisition is posters for 90 Amitabh Bachchan films, including one of his earliest films Sanjog (1971) and his unreleased film Zamaanat.

In addition to this, Hindi films like Roti (1942), Sher-e-Baghdad (1946), Anmol Ghadi (1946), Atom Bomb (1947), Stunt Queen (1947), Pugree (1948), Sant Namdev (1949), Apna Desh (1949), Sant Namdev (1949), Veer Ghatoktach (1949), Deedar (1951), Alam Ara (1956), Dilli Ka Thug (1958), Phagun (1958), Manzil (1960), Razia Sultana (1961) etc. are a part of this collection. The posters are of 20x30 and 30x40 dimensions.

The fresh acquisition also includes posters featuring Fearless Nadia, for the films Sher-e-Baghdad (1946), Stunt Queen (1947), 11 o’clock (1948) and Shamsherbaaz (1953). There are numerous posters featuring Dilip Kumar, Madhubala, Raj Kapoor, Meena Kumari, Guru Dutt, Nargis, Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Mumtaz, Dharmendra, Dara Singh and many more. The collection covers a large range of actors and stars from all eras.

A big chunk of the collections is posters for mythological and historical films such as Sampoorna Ramayan (1961), Shree Ganesh (1962), Veer Abhimanyu (1965), Shankar Sati Anusuya (1965), Veer Bhimsen (1964), Laxmi Narayan (1951), Balram Srikrishna (1968). Also included are over 120 wall posters of Tamil films, 150 recent films and 600 South Indian language films (mainly Kannada and Telugu).

 “This has been a significant addition to NFAI’s ever-growing collection of film related material. We appeal to all film lovers to come forward and provide films and film-related material so that it can be preserved for future generations, said Prakash Magdum, director of NFAI.

Courtesy: NFAI