‘Bollywood Showcards at ROM, Canada

An off-beat exhibit, entitled ‘Bollywood Cinema Showcards: Indian Film Art from the 1950s to the 1980s’, is a vivacious visual journey through the history of Hindi movie advertising.

The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) presents the North American debut of this show curated by Deepali Dewan. She elaborates, “The idea is to explore the evolution of a specific form of advertising associated with the Hindi commercial cinema. This combine of paint and photography encompasses a unique aspect of South Asian visual culture. They were originally produced by local artists but usually thrown out at the end of a film’s run. It is remarkable that this collection has survived at all.”

It’s a stunning array of vintage Bollywood cinema showcards and other forms of film advertising that has been assembled for the first time in Canada. Using a combination of photo collage and hand painting, local artisans used their imagination to create dynamic interpretations of scenes from Bollywood films. Almost 125 pieces are on display, featuring star celebrities in popular movies from India's colorful film history.

The ROM strives to increase understanding of the interdependent domains of cultural and natural diversity, their relationships, significance, preservation, and conservation. The Museum was established by an Act of the Ontario Legislature in April 1912. Annually, it welcomes over a million visitors. The ROM can accommodate up to 1.6 million visitors a year, including 215,000 students.

The ROM wished to put all of its major collections on permanent display, as well as increase the number of objects within each gallery. The expansion and renovation project, known as Renaissance ROM, generates new and renovated exhibition and gallery spaces, and showcases the collections in more comprehensive and dynamic ways. After Renaissance ROM, the Museum has an additional 80,000 square feet of public space. The project also renovated about 75% of the public spaces in the historic buildings.

(Information courtesy: The ROM, Canada)