Sagina

Tapan Sinha poster for sale.

Featured here is an actual surviving original Bollywood poster of the old 1974 Hindi film directed by noted parallel filmmaker Tapan Sinha that starred Dilip Kumar in the titular role as “Sagina.”

Produced by J.K. Kapur under the Rupasree International banner, Sagina (1974) also starred Saira Banu, Aparna Sen, Anil Chatterjee, Swarup Dutt, Chinmoy Roy, Om Prakash and Kader Khan in supporting roles.

The film was a Hindi remake of Tapan Sinha’s earlier Bengali release Sagina Mahato (1970), starring Dilip Kumar as well in the titular role, which itself was based on a Bengali short story called Sagina Mahato written by noted writer Gour Kishore Ghosh in 1969.

The “Emperor of Acting” and pioneer of method acting in Indian cinema, Dilip Kumar played the role of Sagina, a young trade union leader who courageously stands up against the high handedness of his factory’s British owners, only to be identified as a traitor by his own and tried in a communist people’s court setup in a forest.

Sagina (1974) is fondly remembered as the first and only film where legendary playback singer Kishore Kumar sang for Dilip Kumar. The smash hit song, “Saala Main Toh Sahab Ban Gaya” became a rage throughout the nation at the time of the film’s release and is fondly remembered and played till today.

The plot of Sagina (1974) is summarized in the opening credits as follows: “A chapter in the history of India 1942-43. On the one hand, the struggle against Fascist lust. On the other, British Imperialism breathing it’s last. In this cataclysm a new India was being born.”

Although praised by critics, the film was a box office failure, marking “tragedy king,” Dilip Kumar’s first consecutive failure in almost three decades since 1945 – i.e. Dastaan (1972) followed by Sagina (1974).

Printed and circulated during the first release run of the film in theaters (somewhere in 1974), this Tapan Sinha movie poster was originally designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This old Bollywood poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by the highest paid movie poster artist of all time in Indian cinema, Diwakar Karkare of Studio Diwakar Bombay fame. His printed signature is seen on the bottom right of this old Bollywood poster.

A striking full length illustration of lead actor Dilip Kumar is seen at the bottom of this Sagina poster. He is seen playing the dhol (double-sided barrel drum). A large hand painted close up of his wife Saira Banu is seen alongside on the left. A smaller portrait of actress Aparna Sen is seen illustrated on the top of this Tapan Sinha poster.

All three portraits display master Bollywood poster artist Diwakar Karkare’s command over portraiture. An earthy cream shade is used in the background of this vintage Bollywood poster, giving it a very soothing feel.

Typography used in this old Bollywood poster is primarily in Devanagari Hindi, with a translation of the title appearing in English as well at the bottom. The Devanagari Hindi title is seen in a diagonal 3D styled signboard font, standing out in contrast against the minimal background.

The soundtrack album of Sagina (1974) was composed by legendary music director S.D. Burman, while lyrics were written by Majrooh Sultanpuri. The cult song, “Saala Main Toh Sahab Ban Gaya” sung by Kishore Kumar was later used in the super hit film Raja Hindustani (1996) featuring Aamir Khan.