Diwakar Karkare's Bollywood Posters

Diwakar Karkare was one of the leading artists for Bollywood movies, back in the day when hand-painted posters were crucial to marketing films to rural India.

One of his most important posters was for the 1975 film Deewaar, which helped establish actor Amitabh Bachchan (in the red shirt above) as an 'angry young man' film star.

Diwakar Karkare often painted with palette knives and he produced many of his posters in gouache.

His posters are popular not only in India, but also in China, Russia, and other countries where American movies were blocked from import, but Hindi-language movies were allowed in.

In the 1990s, most of the art switched to photos and Photoshop. Consequently, collectors now prize the handmade images of the earlier era.
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Books: 
Bollywood Posters (Thames and Hudston)
The Art of Bollywood (Taschen)
Bollywood in Poster (Om Books)