UNITED KINGDOM: LONDON'S VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM HOLDING EXHIBITION OF INDIAN FILM POSTERS TO CELEBRATE "BOLLYWOOD"

Record ID: 392819

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: LONDON'S VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM HOLDING EXHIBITION OF INDIAN FILM POSTERS TO CELEBRATE "BOLLYWOOD"
  • Date: 25th June 2002
  • Summary: SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIVIA PATEL SAYING, "I was trying to give an accessible way into this exhibition for people that didn't know about the subject because what I would like is for people who are not Asian to come and see this exhibition, it is meant to be of broad appeal, also really it was looking at categories that were accessible to people and the best was to do t
  • Embargoed: 10th July 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UK
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1YO8RHFFSP16M3DUYR2PA3W4R
  • Story Text: As Bollywood fever runs high this summer, the Victoria and Albert museum joining in the Masala mayhem by mounting an exhibition of Indian cinema posters, alongside artworks inspired by the Bombay film industry.
    Capturing the vibrant visual culture of the Indian cinema industry, the Cinema India exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum is a collection of over 70 film posters from 1949 to the present day. Running until October, and teamed with a series of workshops, lectures and demonstrations based on Indian film, the exhibition is catching the current tide of enthusiasm for all things Bollywood.
    "It's something that I have been working on for a while, I started first writing a book about this two years ago which was due to come out this year anyway, the museum then acquired this space as a new contemporary space, and it just seemed the right time in terms of all the interest that is going on we were already linked with he BFI in terms of their imagine Asia festival, so all of those things linked together, my research, the book coming up, this new space, it just seemed appropriate to have it now and really be contemporary because that's what people are looking at at the moment".
    Some exhibits already belonged to the V&A and others have been borrowed especially for the event. The items on show have been arranged to give a sense of the development of the Indian film industry, and Indian history .
    "I was trying to give an accessible way into this exhibition for people that didn't know about the subject because what I would like is for people who are not Asian to come and see this exhibition, it is meant to be of broad appeal, also really it was looking at categories that were accessible to people and the best was to do that is to give a chronological order to section them off, and that is what the exhibition does, it has a chronological order and gives a sense of Indian history through the posters themselves. All examples of popular culture, as these are, do reflect the society in which they are produced, so you can have images that, in particular say of the 1970's which are very violent images, action packed images, and that was because India was going through a particularly violent and crime ridden time.
    And fills reflect that, they reflect what id happening in society and the posters therefore reflect that, so you need to pick up on those elements that these are examples of popular culture which give tell you about the films first and foremost, they are advertising that film, but then they also tell you something else on another level.
    As well as posters promoting films, there are also exhibits of artwork inspired by Bollywood imagery, and photographic studies of the world behind the scenes. One highlight is Catherine Yass' "Star" series of photographs - a group of portraits of some of the top Bollywood stars. The exhibition will also feature a residency by a company of hoarding painters, who's massive billboard hand-paintings , which were once an integral part of the Bombay scenery, are becoming a dying art thanks to modern technology.
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