Rare film memorabilia up for grabs

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Old collectibles up for auction include posters of Do Aur Do Paanch

Some rare cinematic collectibles will be on display at the Osian’s inaugural Osianama auction, the preview of which is on at Kila in the capital. On display are rare sheet posters, probably the only existing ones, of Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor in Do Aur Do Paanch (1980); a poster of the Shammi Kapoor starrer Raat Ke Rahi designed by 1960’s renowned poster designer Pradyuman, the man behind the BR Films logo; and a complete set of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar’s original LP records with his compositions for films such as Pather Panchali, Anuradha and Godaan.

Also set to go under the hammer are Hindi cinema’s forgotten and silent era, black and white memorabilia from the Zafar Aabid Collection such as pre-independence rare stills including the cast and crew from Himanshu Rai’s 1928 classic silent film Shiraz; signed and dated 1930 portrait of actress Sulochana; photographic stills from 1937 Gangavataran, the first and last talkie film by the Father of Indian Cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke; one of the first artworks for Kamal Amrohi’s Razia Sultan made many years before the film was completed.
This will be the first auction in the Osianama series, which will present a combination of the antiquities, modern and contemporary fine arts and vintage Indian film publicity material and memorabilia.
“The inclusion of film publicity material in the auction will further take forward Osian’s market-building processes for film memorabilia in India which began over ten years ago. This auction is another important step in making our audience love and respect their cinematic and cultural heritage. It’s an attempt to preserve the history we are so proud of,” said Neville Tuli, chairman of Osian’s group.
“While on one hand India is proud of its 6,000 year old cultural wealth, on the other hand, preserving history doesn’t seem to be a priority. For example, the finest rare image of the photographic stills of your cinematic history can sell for one hundredth the price of a mediocre, easily available, non-historically significant contemporary painting. This needs to be debated and understood in context,” added Tuli.