Cannes Lions
J. WALTER THOMPSON, Mumbai / RED FM / 2017
Overview
Entries
Credits
Description
To launch Redtro, a retro music channel in Mumbai, India, we resurrected a lost retro art form, of the handpainted Bollywood billboard. This is the first handpainted billboard campaign after the practice of hand made Bollywood publicity was virtually wiped out by printing, photography and digital technology. Unlike the hundreds of artists who once made their livelihood out
of this form of commercial painting, today only a handful remain. This campaign commemorates the forgotten art and pays fond tribute to its place in yesteryear Mumbai.
Execution
The process of illustration involved practices used by erstwhile Bollywood hoarding painters. The figures were recreated looking at photographs of ‘actors’ posing for the ‘scene.’ We used journalistic pictures depicting real civic issues in Mumbai as a starting point for devising these everyday scenes.
Just the way movie billboards were created over two decades ago.
After the initial realistic hand drawing, the bold impressionist strokes and kitschy colours characteristic of Indian movie poster art were used as inspiration. The manner of dabbing multiple colours, in layers, and then finishing the look with high contrast colourful highlights was inspired from the original art form.
The challenge was to take everyday occurrences of a Mumbaikar and render them in hi-impact cinematic scale, giving average citizens the status of larger than life heroes. The dramatic angles, the enhanced foregrounding and
the use of saturated colours revived the loud visual iconography of retro cinema.
Outcome
The artworks in a fondly remembered style struck a strong emotional chord among millions of Mumbaikars who were reminded of the good old days once more.
The campaign led to an interest in the new radio channel and was one of the key elements in building a strong listenership within the initial weeks of the launch.
Conversation around the retro art form became content for the radio channel and enabled the audience to learn more about the history and bygone days of the city.
Interviews with the curator of the hand-painted billboard project and artists generated awareness in the retro art form and informed the public about ways in which the art was still being pursued through special curated and commissioned projects.
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