Adult posters get art salute

Sep 01, 2011 - Nidhi Sethi |

Age Correspondent

Traditional Bolly-wood posters have acquired a cult status and are collectibles for fans and connoisseurs. However, adult movie posters have largely been ignored because of their graphic sexual overtones. These posters echo the kitsch imagery of Indian porn industry and address the forbidden fantasies while bringing them to life through a language of their own, a distinct style, often bizarre titles and explicit visuals. They are aesthetic in their own explicit way.
V. Sunil, executive creative director of Wieden+ Kennedy (W+K), has kept in touch with this almost extinct art form and has been collecting them for almost 10 years now. Presently, he is showcasing them at an exhibition titled “Morning Show”.
He says, “I collect all kind of random things from all around the world. These posters are a part of that collection. These movies were made in the 80s and early 90s. The style of poster art those days was very different from today. The unique thing about these posters is the style of art direction and writing. The names were hand-painted, images of actors were placed disproportionately.”
This is the first time that he is displaying these posters at an exhibition. Sunil possesses 40 posters, but only 18 are a part of the show. The response has been really good, says Sunil. “People seem excited about the art form, the style and not the nudity. I get bombarded with all sorts of questions. I think it is important to show these now because digital world has made this art form vanish.”
So has the Indian audience matured? The posters and teasers of Vidya Balan-starrer Dirty Picture are out, but hardly anybody frowned looking at them.
“Audiences in India are always ready for newer things. I have not seen the posters of Dirty Picture. I hear it is based on the life of Silk Smitha, but I am sure it is not a ‘dirty picture’. It’s time things come out in the open, so that we don’t have to be a hush-hush society anymore,” Sunil sums up.

The exhibition is on till September 17 at W+K Exp, B-10 Triveni Complex, Sheikh Sarai Phase I

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