Not on display

Mughal-E-Azam

Indian Film Hoarding
2002 (made)
Artist/Maker
Balkrishna Arts (makers)
Place of origin
London (made)

The title runs across the top of the hoarding. On the left hand side is an image of the Prince and his true love hugging. On the right is a portrait of the Prince's father, the Emperor dressed in armour and in the middle ground between the two is a small scale sketch of an army.

Object details

Category
Film and Cinema
Object type
Indian film hoarding
TitleMughal-E-Azam
Materials and techniques
Oil paint on canvas
Oil Paint
Canvas
Painting
Brief description
Hoarding for the film Mughal-E-Azam(1960) by Balkrishna Arts (India), oil paint on canvas, 2002, London.
Physical description
The title runs across the top of the hoarding. On the left hand side is an image of the Prince and his true love hugging. On the right is a portrait of the Prince's father, the Emperor dressed in armour and in the middle ground between the two is a small scale sketch of an army.
Dimensions
  • Height: 2m
  • Width: 5.5m
Gallery label
Hoarding painters

Film hoardings adorning streets and cinema fronts with their large bold images are a characteristic of the city. Hand-painted hoardings used to be a primary form of film advertising. M.F. Husain, one of Indian's most important contemporary artists, famously began his career as a hoarding painter. Today this is a dying art which is gradually being replaced by computer-generated images. ( Photographs courtesy of Jonathan Torgovnik)

Balkrishna Arts

The workshop of this family-run firm is in a tiny gully off a main road in Bombay (Mumbai). Here, they produce traditional hand-painted hoardings measuring as much as 10 feet in height by 20 feet in width. The painters make rough sketches of the design using films stills for reference. Once this has been approved, the canvas is prepared, the design is scaled up on to the large canvas using a grid system, and painted. Transferring a small-scale design through to completion of the painting takes 1-2 days. Balkrishna Arts is one of a handful of firms still practising this art form.
Object history
This hoarding by Balkrishn Arts was commissioned by the V&A as part of the' Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood' exhibition (25 June to 6 October 2002). Two artists from the studio, Ujjwal and Balkrishn Vaidya were invited to the V&A to demonstrate their artwork. This along with two other hoardings were completed on site between 24-30 June 2002.
Collection
South & South East Asia Collection
Accession number
IS.112-2002

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Record createdOctober 2, 2002
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O68228/mughal-e-azam-indian-film-hoarding-balkrishna-arts/
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