Click to play videoMumbai: Over the years many have heard Bollywood veterans reminisce about poster art - a concept that died with the arrival of digital printing. But curiosity led this correspondent to artist Ramakant Phadte.
Working out of a non-descript studio in Mumbai's Matunga area, Ramakant moved out of his father's poster painting job and started work on portraits that reflect Bollywood.
A graduate of JJ College of Art, his body of work include clothing boxes for designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla and hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani's whacky salon Mad O Wot.
So when this correspondent went looking for something more filmy, Ramakant suggested a blockbuster film poster. And well, who could say no to that!
As for the painter himself, as much as it is the in thing to do, digital art and film posters just don't work the magic.
“Making posters is almost over nowadays. What I would do in seven days, would be done in a day’s time in a computer. But we should try to preserve this form of art,” Ramakant said.
He also spoke at length about the technicalities of this art form. “I have seen such interesting poster art in the bygone days that vinyl printing can never reproduce the same quality. Even if there wasn't a lot of likeness in the posters, the stroke-work and blend of colours, in every department of cinema art, just can't be matched today.”
Ramakant began work on the filmy poster with a sketch. The coloring, a mix of acrylic and watercolor, is a painstaking process as the canvass can be moody depending on the intensity of every brushstroke. But after hours of silent colour filling, the poster was finally complete.
The correspondent lived her dream of being Shah Rukh Khan's heroine, if only on canvas!
This Bollywood memorabilia with all its melodrama intact can cost you anything between Rs 10,000 to 15,000. As for the gasps that you would draw once you put them up, well that would be priceless.
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