Mahaan

Mahaan poster for sale.

Featured here is an actual surviving original Bollywood poster of the old 1983 Hindi film directed by S. Ramanathan that starred the greatest superstar in Indian cinema, Amitabh Bachchan in a triple role opposite actresses Waheeda Rehman, Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi.

Produced by Satyanarayana & Suryanarayana and presented under the Satya Chitra International banner, Mahaan (1983) also starred Ashok Kumar, Amjad Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Kader Khan, Mukri, Iftekhar, Aruna Irani, Urmila Bhatt and Mac Mohan in supporting roles, while Sujit Kumar and Prathima Devi made guest appearances in the film.

Shot extensively in Kathmandu Nepal, Mahaan (1983) holds the distinction of being the only film in the history of Indian cinema to feature superstar Amitabh Bachchan in a triple role, making this Bollywood poster, highly collectible!

A remake of the Kannada film Shankar Guru (1978), Mahaan (1983) told the story of an upright lawyer Amit (Amitabh Bachchan) who sends his childhood friend Vikram Singh (Amjad Khan) to jail on a drugs case, hoping the incarceration will help him reform his life. However, when Vikram Singh is released from jail, he murders his partner in the drug business Rajan (Sujit Kumar) and frames Amit. On the run from the law, Amit is separated from his pregnant wife Janki (Waheeda Rehman) at the train station. He escapes to Nepal where he assumes the identity of a dying man called Rana Ranveer, raising his daughter Manju (Parveen Babi) as his own. In the meantime, Janki gives birth to twins Guru and Shankar (Amitabh Bachchan). Guru is stolen by a barren couple at birth and becomes a theater actor who falls in love with Rita (Zeenat Aman), while Shankar becomes an honest police officer who falls in love with Manju. This connection ultimately reunites the broken family together.

Printed and circulated during the first release of the film in theaters (somewhere in 1983), this Mahaan poster was originally designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This old Amitabh Bachchan movie poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by one of the greatest south Indian film poster artists, Eswar. His printed signature is seen on the bottom right of the poster.

Stunning illustrated close up portraits of superstar Amitabh Bachchan in his triple role character are seen on the top. The artist captures depth and pain in the actor’s eyes brilliantly in the central portrait. The three actresses who play love interests of each of the three characters are seen hand painted below in superbly depicted portraits. Waheeda Rehman appears at the center and she is flanked by Parveen Babi on the left and Zeenat Aman on the right.

Typography used in this Mahaan poster is primarily in English, with a translation of the title appearing in Devanagari Hindi and Urdu as well. The English title of this old Amitabh poster is seen written in yellow, highlighted by an black border in a cinemascope 3D font. The background has a mixed gradient of red, giving this original Bollywood poster a striking appearance.

The soundtrack album of Mahaan (1983) was composed by music maestro R.D. Burman, while lyrics were written by Anjaan. It featured the blockbuster hit songs, “Pyar Mein Dil Pe Maar De Goli” sung by Kishore Kumar & Asha Bhosle and “Jidhar Dekhoon Teri Tasveer Nazar Aati Hai” sung by both Kishore Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan.