Naag Champa

Snake movie poster for sale: Naag Champa (1958).

Featured here is a vintage Bollywood poster of the old 1958 Hindi fantasy drama directed by Vinod Desai that starred Manher Desai and Nirupa Roy in lead roles.

A story of a prince called Nagkumar (played by Manher Desai) who is born in human form but is a snake in reality, Naag Champa (1958) was produced and released under the Vinod Films’ banner. It also featured Kammo, Lalita Pawar, Sapru and Sunder in supporting roles.

Printed and circulated during the film’s subsequent release run in north Indian theaters (somewhere in the 1960s), this Naag Champa movie poster was originally designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

Originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by a movie poster design studio in Delhi, this snake movie poster features a striking design using a mix of two colors – red and yellow.

Actress Nirupa Roy who plays the role of Champa is depicted in a beautiful illustration on the top of this snake movie poster. She is seen playing the “bin” or “pungi” – a musical instrument used by snake charmers. The artwork captures her trying to serenade her to-be husband who is a serpent in human form.

A hand drawn snake outlined in white is seen in the background, appearing in stark contrast against the black background.

Manher Desai is seen in his character of royal prince Nagkumar, in a smaller close up illustration at the bottom of this Naag Champa poster. Set against a dark black background, the artwork of this old Bollywood poster stands out due to the strong mix of red and yellow hues used in the foreground.

Typography used in this vintage Bollywood snake movie poster is primarily in Devanagari Hindi, with a translation of the title appearing in English as well as Urdu at the bottom.

The soundtrack album of Naag Champa (1958) was composed by legendary playback singer Manna Dey and S.N. Tripathi. It featured gems such as “Chhod Atariya Gaye Sanwaria” and “Nainon Men Gori Kise Basa Liya” sung by Lata Mangeshkar.