The near extinct hand-painted movie billboard is the subject of Manohar Singh Bisht’s 90-minute documentary In Search of Fading Canvas, which was shown at the recently held Mumbai International Film Festival. Bisht profiles artists who are among the surviving practitioners of the art form from such film centres as Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Many of these artists have either set aside their paint brushes or switched to other professions to eke out a living.

For generations of moviegoers, hand-painted posters and billboards were the first and best advertisements for upcoming productions. “As a child growing up in Lucknow, I used to go to the theatre Novelty cinema and buy a ticket for a film based on the banner art, how the characters were drawn, how the scenes were painted and the colours that made it look real,” Bisht said. An idea that had been germinating in his head for a long time finally took shape in 2013, the centenary year of Indian cinema.

“By then, I had been making short films and since the subject always intrigued me, I decided to pursue it,” Bisht said. “It began to take shape in Chor Bazaar in Mumbai, where I met collectors who purchased hand-painted posters and from there the story took a whirlwind tour across the country where I met several artists.”

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The search for painters lasted two years. Among the ones featured in the documentary is Parvez from Lucknow. “He used to paint banners for the Novelty theatre and now he sells automotive number plates outside the theatre because banner art was phased out after vinyl and flex prints arrived,” Bisht said.

Another character is 90 year-old Satish, who revisits the memory of painting banners for Aan (1952) and Madhumati (1958). Also featured is S Rehman from Mumbai, who paints the colourful banners at Alfred Talkies (and is the subject of the German documentary Original Copy, which was also screened at MIFF). Rehman complains about the poor working conditions and low wages, but carries on with brio because of his love for his profession. We meet Diwakar Karkare, who worked on the posters of several popular films from the 1970s, including Amitabh Bachchan in his iconic hands-on-the-hips pose from Deewar (1975). Chinappa from Bengaluru explains the difference in hand-painted poster art between Hindi and Southern cinema by using the visual representation of Hema Malini as an example.

The die-hard spirit of the backroom artists is a common thread in all the interviews. “They are down, but not out, and that’s the spirit I managed to capture, which I personally found enriching. Like films, life goes on,” Bisht said.