Think ‘Hotel Decent’ for Jab We Met, tens of candles lit up at the foot of India Gate for Rang De Basanti, ‘Yahoooo’ from a mountain top for Shammi Kapoor, and a Mr. India poster that has an invisible Anil Kapoor. What started as and still is a hobby, today has countless fans on Facebook, plenty of articles and spreads in newspapers and has been a part of many of our Facebook conversations. Suchita spoke with Akshar Pathak, creator, designer and graphic artist extraordinaire behind ‘Minimal Bollywood Posters’ on what got him started, what keeps him going and his design philosophy.
Suchita | Five months, fifteen thousand fans and a handful of articles later… how did all this start?
Akshar | I came across minimalist poster designs by Ibraheem Youssef for Quentin Tarantino’s movies, which went viral online. No one in India had really explored this style of design for movie posters, so I thought I’d give it a shot and that’s how it all began. My first poster was for Agneepath. I showed it to a couple of friends and they liked what they saw, so I started a page on Facebook, shared my designs, which were then shared by others, and overtime it has caught on I guess.
Suchita | Since then a couple of pages for ‘Minimal Bollywood Posters’ have started and you feature work by others as well..
Akshar | Yes, a lot of people send me their entries, which I feature on my Facebook page. And as it turns out, others have started pages sharing their own designs for Bollywood posters.
Suchita | What’s your approach to making ‘minimal posters’?
Akshar | For my designs, I stick to one element from the movie I choose. For Jab We Met it was ‘Hotel Decent’, for Dil Chahta Hai it was the iconic shot of the three characters staring at the sea. As it turns out, these are memorable moments from the respective movies and I guess that’s what has made the designs a hit with my audience. I started MBP for the fun of it, I create these in my free time, and I make sure I have fun with every design I create.
{Tilt your screen back to see this poster}
Suchita | It’s awesome that you started this for fun and haven’t let the appreciation side-track you from your aesthetic..
Akshar | It’s really about just keeping it simple. Worldwide, that’s what design is leaning toward. Look at Apple. They’ve taken good technology, but packaged into a product that’s so user friendly and evidently it works. When its simple, it looks good, people get it and it clicks. Not that I haven’t gotten my share of hate mail- there will always be people who criticize what you do and how you do it. But if at the end of it, there are tons of others who appreciate it, that’s what matters.
Thing is, design is so subjective. Everyone has their own preferences and tastes and instead of spending countless hours researching and trying to decode people, you should just focus on making your design accessible. Others should be able to understand it and find their way around it instead of being confused or intimidated by it.
Suchita | I saw your spread in Times of India. Well done! What else is in store?
Akshar | HT City will be featuring me in their ‘People in the City’ section, which is pretty cool. More than the media, I’ve enjoyed giving TED talks a lot. In fact I have one coming up, and then another talk at BITS Pilani probably. Life plans? Umm, I really can’t say you know. Two years ago, after a trip to Goa, I wanted to own my own shack and cook and serve food to people. But that obviously hasn’t worked out…
For more of Akshar’s designs, have a look at his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MinimalBollywoodPosters
You can purchase some of the posters online here: www.funkypitara.com/collections/posters/Bollywood
