Bollywood Cinema Showcards : Indian Film Art from the 1950s to the 1980s

“Bollywood” refers to the Hindi commercial film industry centred in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), a port city in western India. While Bollywood films have achieved worldwide recognition, the visual culture of advertising that surrounds them—large-scale billboards, posters, mobile floats, lobby cards, and cinema booklets—has not received as much attention even though it has been a part of the urban and rural landscape of northern India for much of the 20th century. This book tells the story of a unique but little-studied form of Bollywood advertising: the showcard.  Showcards are collages using film stills that have been cut and assembled on a board and hand-painted. They are unique works of art, combining old and new painting styles with photography, resulting in dramatic, colourful compositions. This book traces the evolution of Bollywood showcards over four decades—from the 1950s, just after India’s Independence, to the 1980s, just before its entry into the global economy. The majority of the works reproduced here are from The Hartwick Collection, assembled between 2006 and 2010. They are supplemented by works from the ROM’s collection.