The names of the films change every week but the themes in the posters repeat. An angry male actor is giving out a flying kick, a petrified female actor is running with her lover or posing as a seductress, or a pair deeply in love are dancing or making out. [break]
The use of colors and fonts tend to repeat in each alternative poster, sometimes plagiarism sneaks out: the particular pose of the actor is similar to that of a certain Hollywood movie.
The Designer
Sunder Shrestha, 46, has been in Nepali film poster-making business for 25 years. The first Nepali poster he designed was that of the film “Santan” starring Bhuwan KC and Karishma Manandhar.
His company, Ideal Designers, located in Bag Bazaar, first started business with the name of Creative Vision. The name might have been changed but the service has not. It is a hotspot for Nepali film producers.
“Some 90% of the posters of the Nepali film market are made here,” Shrestha says.
His statement is hard to question because the company has currently a lineup of more than three dozen film posters being worked on. Almost the same numbers of posters have already been delivered to producers in the last couple of months.
He, along with two other designers, works on the poster designs of the films. A self-taught artist, Shrestha is the one who finalizes and approves each design.
Making of Nepali movie posters
Once a film is shot and is in its post-production phase, producers visit designers with the name and theme of the film.
“I design the title of the film, and once they approve, we extract stills from the film and design the poster,” says Shrestha. The poster is approved once the producers are satisfied with it. Sometimes it requires him to make 10 to 12 rough sketches.
With the onslaught of digital technology, things have changed drastically in recent years.
He remembers the times when painters had to be brought in from India to make paintings of films. “Many times, the portraits of actors wouldn’t match with their faces,” he says. These prints went as posters, and the work was arduous.
He believes that the rise in digital technology has been a boon.
With that, the cost of making posters also has been minimized. A poster of 30” x 60” costs Rs. 160 per print. This and 60” x 120” posters are the ones that are widely distributed in Nepal.
Creativity and plagiarism
For Shrestha, who has been a pioneer figure in the business, creativity is part of the game. “A producer usually invests more than Rs 200,000 in promotion posters. So if we add a helicopter or emphasize on the love element in the film while designing the poster, we’re only doing it so that he can make some extra bucks.”
He adds, “The life of a Nepali film poster is a week. The Municipality hasn’t allocated any particular space for poster pasting, and each time a poster is torn, I see my creativity going to the drain.”
Director Ujwal Ghimire, whose film “Chodi Gaye Paap Lagla” won seven national awards says, “Posters are one among the many publicity elements used by filmmakers.
It should reflect the gist of the film and not take audiences for a ride.” His film, which is based on a triangular love story, shows two individuals enjoying each other’s company, with no regard to time or space.
Several Nepali posters that surfaced in the past year were reported to have been copied and worked on, according to Nagarik daily. The prominent one being actor Rekha Thapa’s production, “Hifajaat”. It was designed in Shrestha’s studio.
He defends that the poster was designed to be showcased at home only but was leaked to the market. After the news coverage, he affirms that the studio has stopped plagiarizing posters.
Breaking away from the obvious
Although Shrestha’s posters rule the Nepali film market, there are a handful of Nepali filmmakers and designers who are starting a fresh tradition. They are designing posters pleasing to the eyes.
The tradition began with Bhusan Dahal’s “Kagbeni” and Alok Nembang’s “Sano Sansar” in 2008.
Recently, two film posters, Samten Bhutia’s “Letters” and Pitamber Pandey’s “Batch No 16” stand out from the crowd.
“We haven’t designed an artificial poster but built on the film stills,” informs Suraj Bhusal, assistant director of Batch No 16.
The poster of “Letters” meanwhile justifies the thriller elements in the film. It tells the story of a serial killer who leaves letters besides each individual he murders.
It also marks the comeback of actor Uttam Pradhan.
These small initiatives by a few Nepali directors are praiseworthy for the importance they give to poster designing but they appear to get lost in the pool of posters ruling the Nepali film market.
Most posters that peek at passersby however cannot be blamed alone for looking the way they are; they reflect what the films are about.
And most commercial Nepali films are forgettable, whatever the budget.
Related story
Sticking to his passion
