Indian film poster

The distinctive title runs across the bottom and fills one third of the poster. The typography is in a three-dimensional style which evokes the sense of a monumental scale. Above this are two portraits of the actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Badhuri. The portrait of Amitabh is on a larger scale and they are both surrounded by orange and yellow flames which fill the entire poster and denote the title of the film. The title is also in the same orange and yellow shades. Below the titles are lots of line drawings of figures on a miniature scale depicting scenes from the film. The poster has been done in a style which is very similar that of the artist Diwaker and has been 'painted-over' in an way which enhances the facial expressions of the two portraits and gives the design a more dramatic effect. See IS.115-1988 for another poster for the same film which uses the same design concept and advertises the other two actors in the film, Dharmendra and Hema Malini. This was probably made for regional distribution or a later re-release of the film. See IS.29-2002 for the original design.

This was one of two posters advertising the film Sholay (1975) that were produced for regional or overseas distribution. The posters used similar typography to the original poster, but made the portraits of the stars their main focus. This poster features Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri, while the other focuses on Dharmendra and Hema Malini. The dramatic inferno of flames that surrounds the portraits refers to the title of the film: ‘Flames of the Sun’.

IS.80-1987