Papi Pet Ka Sawal Hai

Rajesh Khanna movie posters for sale: Papi Pet Ka Sawal Hai (1984).

Featured here is an actual surviving old Bollywood poster of the 1984 Hindi film produced and directed by Sohanlal Kanwar that starred superstar Rajesh Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha in key roles.

Presented under the Filmnagar banner, Papi Pet Ka Sawal Hai (1984) also starred Jaya Prada, Rati Agnihotri, Tina Ambani, Kanwaljit Singh, Mazhar Khan, Bharat Kapoor, Birbal, Om Shivpuri and Pinchoo Kapoor in supporting roles.

Inspired by the massive success of superstar Rajesh Khanna’s Roti (1974), Papi Pet Ka Sawal Hai (1984), which was released a decade after, featured him as “Rotiwala” (Breadman).

Mohan (Rajesh Khanna) is orphaned at an early age after his mother is gang raped and killed by four mafia lords. His traumatic childhood keeps haunting him throughout his adult life. He becomes a monkey handler (madari) and does street performances along with his companion Radha (Jaya Prada). The two struggle to make ends meet and live in a slum, which is set on fire by a mafia syndicate in order to usurp the land for redevelopment. Mohan turns into a crusader for the downtrodden by using the secret identity of “Rotiwala.” He threatens each member of the mafia syndicate with dire consequences by a leaving a note written on a roti, striking fear in their hearts. Mohan is able to extort large sums of ransom money, which he then distributes to the poor in his slum. Police inspector Ram (Kanwaljit Singh) is assigned to the case and he sets out to nab “Rotiwala.” One of the members of the cartel, Chamanlal (Om Shivpuri) owns a mill that exploits its workers. After Chamanlal pays paltry compensation to a worker maimed on the job, his honest son Arjun (Shatrughan Sinha), who is the legal advisor of his father’s mill, decides to fight against the injustice in court. However, Arjun loses the case and is expelled by his father. He decides to align with the mill workers who are being exploited by his evil father. However, Arjun is framed in the murder of the mill’s union leader (Mazhar Khan). Mohan now realizes that the four mafia syndicate members he is fighting are the same men who gangraped and killed his mom and begins to exact his revenge.

Printed and circulated during a subsequent release of the film (somewhere in the 1980s), this vintage Bollywood poster was originally designed for publicity of the film in north Indian theaters but never ended up being used.

This Papi Pet Ka Sawal Hai poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by a Bollywood poster art studio in Delhi and features quirky artwork. The two lead actors, Rajesh Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha are seen facing each other on the right and left respectively. Actresses Jaya Prada and Rati Agnihotri are seen in a dancing pose in a symmetrical hand drawn illustration above.

The background is a mix of yellow, orange and red on the top half, while the bottom half appears in black. Typography used in this Rajesh Khanna movie poster is a mix of both Devanagari Hindi as well as English. The Devanagari Hindi title appears in yellow with an orange border at the center.

The soundtrack album of Papi Pet Ka Sawal Hai (1984) was composed by popular duo Shankar-Jaikishan. The title song “Papi Pet Ka Sawal Hai” sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar became popular at the time of the film’s release.