The Beehive India executed the design of the 2013 Tableux “100 years of Indian Cinema”, for the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. It was a highly challenging project and a team of 50 people contributed to it including Carpenters, Artists, Painters, Textile people, FRP moulding people, Model making people etc.
We researched deeply on Indian cinema, tried to understand it from the beginning, and the way it progressed over the decades. We studied the manner in which posters were designed initially and the various changes that happened over the years. We even studied the typography i.e. the fonts used to write the names of the movies.
Unfolding the vast subject of Indian cinema and representing both commercial & non-commercial cinema on a limited arena was little challenging.
Concept of cinema is surreal or imaginary. So, we decide to show cinema on a huge bird, something which has just landed on the earth from sky like a fairy.
Conceptually we divided the depiction in 2 parts,
A) Non – Commercial – Scene from Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray. Pather Panchali is referred to as a turning point in Indian cinema, as it was one of the films that pioneered the Parallel Cinema movement, which espoused authenticity and social realism.
B) Commercial – Popular mustard field scene from Dilwale Dulhaniya le jayenge, where Kajol & Shahrukh Khan meet.
We decided to cover the body of the bird with with name of popular films in 3-D typogaphy. Also, photos of Music Directors & Composers, whose contribution to cinema is immeasurable, were shown on the main body.
Today the context of cinema has changed. When going for a movie the audience expects a good experience like good ambience, luxury seating, food etc. We depicted the now famous red PVR seating on the front.
A tripod with a film making camera model was placed right at the front.
A new printing technology was used where photos of popular actors were printed on a transparent polycarbonate sheet, and those sheets were shown as a mast of a boat, in the shape of a movie reel.
