The Burning Train

The Burning Train poster for sale.

Featured here is an actual surviving original Bollywood poster of the 1980 action drama directed by Ravi Chopra that featured a stellar star cast comprising Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna, Parveen Babi, Jeetendra and Neetu Singh in key roles.

Produced by B.R Chopra, The Burning Train (1980) also starred an ensemble supporting cast of Simi Garewal, Navin Nischol, Danny Denzongpa, Nazir Hussain, Asha Sachdev, Madan Puri, Sujit Kumar, Ranjeet, Asrani, Mukri, Shammi, Rajendra Nath, Iftekhar, Paintal, Keshto Mukherjee, Mac Mohan, Nana Palshikar, Urmila Bhatt and Indrani Mukherjee.

Produced on a very expensive budget, The Burning Train (1980) was an action packed thriller inspired from a Japanese movie called The Bullet Train (1975). It told the gripping story of an unstoppable express train that catches fire on it’s maiden run. The plot of the film was very similar to the Hollywood blockbusters, Speed (1994) and Unstoppable (2010).

The film is widely regarded as a “cult classic” of Indian cinema, making this Burning Train poster, highly collectible!

Printed and circulated during the initial release run of the film (somewhere in the early 1980s), this old Bollywood poster was printed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This vintage Burning Train poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by a poster design studio in Bombay.

Striking hand drawn portraits of the lead actors, Vinod Khanna, Dharmendra and Jeetendra, appear at the center. Large close ups of actresses Hema Malini, Neetu Singh and Parveen Babi are seen on the top of this Burning Train poster. A high speed train that is on fire is seen at the bottom in a dramatic illustration.

Typography used in this vintage Bollywood poster is entirely in Devanagari Hindi, with the title appearing amidst burning flames at the bottom in a 3D font.

The soundtrack album of The Burning Train (1980) was composed by legendary composer R.D. Burman, while lyrics were written by Sahir Ludhianvi. It contained gems like “Pal Do Pal Ka Saath Humara” sung by Mohammed Rafi & Asha Bhosle, “Teri Hai Zameen Tera Aasman” sung by Padmini Kolhapure & Sushma Shrestha and “Pehli Nazar Mein” sung by Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle & Usha Mangeshkar.