Sholay

Original vintage hand painted Bollywood movie poster of the epic Hindi film Sholay (1975) for sale.

Featured here for sale is a rare surviving original first print poster of the greatest Bollywood film ever made in Indian cinema, Sholay.

Printed and circulated during the first release of Sholay (somewhere in the mid 1970s), this vintage hand painted Bollywood movie poster was originally designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This is an actual publicity poster from the era that the film was first released in, i.e. 1975. This old Bollywood movie poster was originally designed on a hand painted canvas by one of the most sought after Hindi film poster artists/painters, C. Mohan, making it highly collectible.

The poster bears the signature style of C. Mohan’s brilliance, with superbly hand painted passport styled portraits of the lead actors on the top. In the design of this old Bollywood movie poster, C. Mohan capitalizes on the two USPs of the film, the first being its impressive star cast with an announcement marked in bold on the top that says: “The greatest star-cast ever assembled!” and the second its epic storyline, with an announcement that reads: “The greatest story ever told!”

Bollywood movie poster painter C. Mohan focuses on typography by giving maximum prominence to the title of the film, which appears in a brilliant 3D styled font engulfed in flames. C. Mohan’s original signature is clearly seen on the bottom right hand corner of this authentic old movie poster.

Sholay is the highest grossing film of all time in Indian cinema and unanimously regarded as the greatest film ever made in Bollywood. Declared as the “Film of the Millennium” by BBC India in 1999, Sholay is an unforgettable classic that has become almost synonymous with ‘masala’ in Indian cinema. Its characters such as Jai, Veeru, Basanti, Thakur & Gabbar Singh have been etched into history. The film has an unbeaten record for running for over five consecutive years after being released. A 3-D version of this film was released in January 2014. Sholay enjoys a cult following in India and its dialogues are often quoted in various media.