Phagun

Madhubala poster for sale: Phagun (1958).

Featured here is a rare hand painted vintage Bollywood poster of the old Hindi film, Phagun.

This is an actual surviving vintage poster of the 1958 film that featured the most beautiful actress in Indian cinema, Madhubala in the lead role opposite Bharat Bhushan. For her unparalleled beauty, Madhubala was often referred to as the “Marilyn Monroe of Bollywood.”

Printed and circulated somewhere after the release of the film (1960s), this old hand drawn cinema poster was originally designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This poster was originally designed on a hand painted canvas by a poster design studio in Mumbai, making it highly collectible. The Bollywood poster artist has chosen unnaturally bright colors to depict the lead couple on the poster. Madhubala and Bharat Bhushan are seen in an almost psychedelic avatar. The typography used in this poster is completely in English with the title translated into Devanagari Hindi.

Phagun is a 1958 Hindi film starring Madhubala and Bharat Bhushan in lead roles. Madhubala is considered the finest actress in Indian cinema. She is widely remembered as the first Indian actress to gain cult popularity outside India – appearing in an American magazine article entitled “The Biggest Star in the World – and she’s not in Beverly Hills.”

Madhubala appeared in over seventy films throughout her career and is routinely compared to Marilyn Monroe, having a similarly iconic position in Indian film history.