Hand Painted Bollywood Posters: Indian Hippy

Remember a childhood filled with  looking up at hand-painted billboards of our favourite movies, from the rolled down windows of our Ambassadors and Fiats? They have now been replaced by digital art prints where Aishwarya Rai looks exactly like Aishwarya Rai requiring no skill of an artist to paint a convincing looking Aishwarya Rai. <sigh>

Well, the art of painting Bollywood posters is dying, but thanks to 'Indian Hippy' it is not dead yet! Yay! Indian Hippy is a collective of the last few remaining Bollywood billboard and poster artists remaining in India.

In an era where there were no trailers, it was the job of these artists to capture and depict the story line of a movie in the posters and billboards.  As Hinesh Jethwani, the founder of Indian Hippy very aptly puts it, "Film posters may have served as advertising earlier, but today, they are considered art."

Indian Happy has very generously offered a discount on their products exclusively for 'Sound Horn Please' readers!

Free shipping on their Top 3 best selling hand painted vintage posters

Mother India

Sholay

 

Mughal-e-Azam

Wait.. there are more discounts to come! Free shipping and a 30-50% discount on some of their kitschy products- wallets, belts, handbags and chairs.

 

 

To avail these discounts, follow 'Sound Horn Please' and drop me a line stating that you are a follower and I'll validate it with Indian Happy to ensure that the discount is applied to your purchase.

Indian Hippy also offers custom portraits hand-painted to look like a Bollywood movie poster. They have recently taken traditional Indian film poster art styles and techniques and adapted it to projects for International artists working on hand painted Hollywood movie posters and Retro-style music covers.

I would like to raise a toast to,

1. Hinesh Jethwani- For his efforts on reviving a dying art form and his efforts to making the art form more accessible to the general public, than only as pricey art available to collectors. This entailed travelling to villages to find the few remaining Bollywood billboard and poster artists and soldiering on despite his dream being called a 'ridiculous whim' on multiple occasions.

2. The Artists: For their determination and hard work in executing the challenging task of re-learning how to minimize the paintings from the massive sized poster and billboard formats that they have been traiditionally painting for decades.

Ironically, I was looking to buy digital prints of old Indian movie posters but now I'm saving up money to buy hand painted posters to contribute towards reviving a dying art form.