Swarn Deep

Old hand painted Indo Russian movie poster of the film Swarn Deep (1979) for sale.

Featured here for sale is a vintage hand painted Russian Bollywood movie poster of the Hindi film Swarn Deep (1979) directed by Yevgeny Friedman.

Swarn Deep was a Russian movie dubbed and released in Hindi. Originally released in Russia as “Treasure Island” in 1971, the film was based on RL Stevenson’s famous novel, “The Treasure Island.”

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

This poster has been brilliantly hand painted with an exotic western flavor to match the adventure theme of the film.

The rising popularity of Indian films in Russia opened up the borders for both import as well as export of cinema. In the 1970s and 1980s several Russian films were exported by Russia’s premier film distributor, Sovexportfilm to India. These films were locally dubbed in Hindi and released in theaters with Indian film titles. Posters for these Indo Russian films were also localized to suit the Indian flavor and were hand painted by leading Bollywood poster painters.

Featured here for sale is one such rare surviving hand painted Russian Bollywood movie poster.

Sovexportfilm was a Soviet film distributor engaged in the business of export and import of Soviet films. The company was subordinate to the Soviet trade representation and held a virtual monopoly on the import of foreign films to the Soviet Union for several years.