ÿþ<html><head><link href="../../Styles/global.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"> <link href="../../Images/favicon.ico" rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="Keywords" content="Posters that showcase one of Bombay cinema s biggest stars." /><title>The Man Who Was Seen Too Much: Amitabh Bachchan on Film Posters </title></head><body style="background-color:#993300" topMargin=0 ><div align="Center"> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" width="100%" style="background-color:#ffffcc"><tr><td style="background-color:#993300;font-size:12px;font-family:Verdana;" align="center"> <a href="http://www.tasveergharindia.net" style="text-decoration:none;color:#ffffff;">Tasveer Ghar: A Digital Archive of South Asian Popular Visual Culture</a></td></tr><tr><td align="center" ><p><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><strong><span style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The Man Who Was Seen Too Much:<br /> Amitabh Bachchan on </span></span></strong></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><strong><span style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Film Posters </span></span></strong></span></p></td></tr><tr><td align="center" > </td></tr><tr><td> <table width="850" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" align="center"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>The Poster As Preview</strong> </span></span> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" border="0" align="left" style="width: 275px; height: 193px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=4><img width="269" height="194" border="0" alt="" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/04.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=4> Fig.04</a></td></tr></table></span></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <p>India&rsquo;s first 70 mm film, <em>Sholay</em> (Flames) is now firmly lodged in the pantheon of Indian cinema history as one of the biggest productions that scaled new heights in the technology of cinematic splendour. The story of a retired policeman&rsquo;s (Sanjeev Kumar) revenge against a dacoit (bandit) who had killed his whole family, <em>Sholay</em> in many ways marked a turning point in Indian cinema for its novel use of violence, locations, action and drama. The film was again written by Salim and Javed who were now ruling the box office as the hit pair of scriptwriters after the success of <em>Zanjeer</em> and <em>Deewar</em> (The Wall, Yash Chopra: 1975). <em>Sholay</em> was a departure at many levels - in the representation of the villain, in the quality of action, the choice of location, and in its 70 mm cinematography. Gabbar Singh (played by Amjad Khan) was a very important figure in the film projected quite differently from the way dacoits had been presented in earlier films.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">11</span></sup> In fact the first pre-release hoarding had Amjad Khan prominently displayed even though he was virtually unknown as an actor at that time.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">12</span></sup> The publicist C. Mohan created several designs for <em>Sholay</em>&rsquo;s publicity. The orange colour of the flames ran across all the posters as did the title font and style which evoked the 70mm cinemascope experience (<a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=4">fig. 04</a>). <em>Sholay</em> was shot on 35 mm and then processed as a 70 mm print, a technique that was administered in Paris and London and required considerable planning.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">13</span></sup> Pre-release information about the technical imagination of the film had already added to the hype about the film. Notice the way the title replicates the shape of the original cinemascope logo placed on top (<a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=5">fig. 05</a>) - wide at both ends and a narrow curved centre. The shape of the title and the orange colour created a sense of continuity even as each poster design tried to address different constituencies of spectators.</p> </span></span> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" border="0" align="right" style="width: 178px; height: 244px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p><span style="font-size: 16px;"><table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=5><img width="172" height="232" border="0" alt="" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/05.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=5> Fig.05</a></td></tr></table></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <p>Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra get equal space in what is perhaps <em>Sholay</em>&rsquo;s most well-known poster (<a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=5">fig. 05</a>). We get a sense of the star cast, a sense that it is an action film and since the protagonists are dressed in jeans, we can assume the film is located in the city. The marketing strategy for <em>Sholay</em> was unique because the &ldquo;village&rdquo; where most of the film is located hardly makes an appearance in any of the posters.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">14</span></sup> We see an unclear impression of the village imprinted right at the bottom of <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=6">figures 06</a> and <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=7">07</a>. The writers Salim and Javed were drawing on a wide repertoire of images from the Hollywood Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone to dacoit films like <em>Mera Gaon Mera Desh</em> (My Village My Country, Raj Khosla: 1971).<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">15</span></sup> In <em>Sholay</em> the dacoit looked like a Mexican bandit confronting jean-clad protagonists from the city. The publicity of the film was conceptualized to highlight the modernity and the singularity of the film. Not a single poster of <em>Sholay</em> looked like a traditional dacoit (bandit) film. The desire to mark the film as different from anything that had been made before was stated in the tagline of one of the posters: &ldquo;The greatest star cast ever assembled &ndash; the greatest story ever told&rdquo; (fig. 04). Dwarka Divecha, the cinematographer of the film is also mentioned in the posters, an unusual practice which clearly indicated that camerawork was one of the major highlights of the film.</p> </span></span> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" border="0" align="left" style="width: 183px; height: 235px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=6><img width="172" height="250" border="0" alt="" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/06.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=6> Fig.06</a></td></tr></table></span></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><span style="font-size: 16px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">The posters would occasionally draw on extra-cinematic information about the private lives of the actors. The poster in <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=6">Fig. 06</a> shows Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri, who got married in the summer of 1973 after they had been signed up for Sholay, in a composition that draws on the posed portraiture style tradition of wedding photography. The poster is obviously mobilizing off-screen narratives about the newly married star couple. Two of their films <em>Zanjeer</em> and <em>Abhimaan</em> (Pride, Hrishikesh Mukherjee: 1973) became hits during the shooting of Sholay and Bachchan who was still not a big star when he signed up for the film, turned into a major star overnight. The photographs of the married couple widely circulating in the print media got woven into the publicity mechanism of <em>Sholay</em> and were reproduced here as the enigmatic couple enveloped by orange flames. Film stars, as Richard Dyer states, are personas constituted by both on screen and off screen narratives.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">16</span></sup> This duality of the image is dependent on a balance between the space of fictional performance and what lies outside of it - a combination of public and private identities that brings together the glamour associated with film and the ordinary world of domestic life or the scandalous world of affairs and other controversies. This contrast between the two worlds is made available in sources outside of film as in newspapers, film magazines, in conversations between fans, television, and now increasingly the internet.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">17</span></sup> It is the widespread presence of off-screen information about Jaya Bahaduri and Amitabh Bachchan that is mobilized by the poster of <em>Sholay</em> in fig. 06, and yet in the film, Bachchan dies before any union with Jaya is possible. Jaya who plays a widow in the film is never shown as one in any of the posters, perhaps to keep the romance theme alive.</span></span></p> <table width="180" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" border="0" align="right"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=7><img width="166" height="229" border="0" alt="" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/07.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=7> Fig.07</a></td></tr></table><br /> <table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=8><img width="165" height="227" border="0" alt="" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/08.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=8> Fig.08</a></td></tr></table></span></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">In <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=7">fig. 07</a>, we see the three main protagonists of <em>Sholay</em> - all men and only their faces. This is the ultimate multi-star vision that renders the women invisible as opposed to posters of the preceding decades when female stars were prominently placed. The &ldquo;multi-starrers&rdquo; of the 1970s have been described as &ldquo;films crammed with stars to increase the apparent market value which simply intensified the stranglehold of the top stars who sometimes worked in up to fifty productions at the same time.&rdquo;<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">18</span></sup> The multi-star film was clearly an expression of the ultimate form of star excess and Bachchan himself acted in several of these films. Interestingly enough, the space of these films was increasingly coded as a predominantly masculine one. Both Hema Malini and Jaya Bhaduri were initially skeptical of their roles in <em>Sholay</em>. Hema Malini had five and a half scenes and Jaya even less than that &ndash; a point both actresses had wondered about and raised with director Ramesh Sippy.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">19</span></sup> <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=7">Figure 07</a> clearly displays the masculine positioning of the multi-star film, something we can also see in several other multi-starrers made during this time.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">20</span></sup> Consider the posters of <em>Trishul</em> (The Trident, Yash Chopra: 1978), for instance. <em>Trishul</em> had four female actresses in substantial roles and yet in the poster in <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=8">fig. 08</a>, the female stars are absent and the tag line says &ldquo;three faces of men&rdquo;. In another poster of <em>Trishul</em> (<a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=9">fig. 09</a>), the male protagonists and the villain enjoy pride of place in a composition that suggests an action film, while the female stars appear as faces on the bottom half. In Manmohan Desai&rsquo;s <em>Amar Akbar Anthony</em> released in 1977, a year before <em>Trishul</em>, we see a similar erasure of the female cast. However Bachchan is placed in the foreground in this poster (<a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=10">fig. 10</a>), clearly evoking a more powerful status for the actor <em>vis-&agrave;-vis</em> the other two male stars in the background. The caption above states that the film is a &ldquo;smash hit&rdquo; and shows that this poster was re-created after the film had been declared a success at the box office. Bachchan as Anthony had made a mark with his comic performance, making the star even more powerful than before.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">21</span></sup> In the world of the multi-starrers, Bachchan was slowly emerging as the all powerful invincible force, the &ldquo;one man industry&rdquo; who was riding the crest.</span></span></p> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" border="0" align="center" style="width: 407px; height: 242px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=9><img width="162" height="224" border="0" alt="" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/09.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=9> Fig.09</a></td></tr></table></span></span></td> <td><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=10><img width="176" height="236" border="0" alt="" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/10.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=10> Fig.10</a></td></tr></table></span></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" border="0" align="left" style="width: 185px; height: 446px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=11><img border="0" alt="" style="width: 155px; height: 221px;" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/11.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=11> Fig.11</a></td></tr></table><br /> <table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=12><img border="0" alt="" style="width: 154px; height: 219px;" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/12.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=12> Fig.12</a></td></tr></table></span></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em>Ram Balram</em> was released in 1980 as a big budget multi-starrer directed by Vijay Anand. The four posters of Ram Balram have an interesting strategy (<a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=11">figs. 11</a>, <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=12">12</a>, <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=13">13</a>, <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=14">14</a>). In <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=11">figs. 11</a> and <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=12">12</a> we see two male stars prominently displayed, so we know the film has a multi-star cast. Both posters convey a sense of drama through facial expressions and position the principle characters in a hierarchical arrangement. The male protagonists are shown twice, clearly indicating their importance in the marketing of the film. The display of the stars overrides any other detailing in these two posters. However, in <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=13">figs. 13</a> and <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=14">14</a> we see an elaborate layout of action. In <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=13">fig. 13</a> we see a helicopter, a ship, cannons, and men on horseback highlighted around the faces of the two protagonists. Both Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan have equal space in all the posters, but there is a density of detail in <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=13">figs. 13</a> and <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=14">14</a>. In <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=14">fig. 14</a>, the stars are made less important than the action. At one level the two stars appear to display a standard &ldquo;men in action&rdquo; pose and expression, but the <em>mise-&egrave;n-scene</em> is strikingly differentiated from the faces, making action the highlight of the film. The dramatic difference lies in the detailing of technology and an object world that enhances and spectacularizes the scale of action. This kind of poster draws our attention to two things. First, the 1970s magnified the scale of action in cinema to a level that involved large production crews since action sequences, like dance sequences, require skilled stunt men and women.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">22</span></sup> Secondly, action came to be recognized by the industry as one of the most marketable and spectacular aspects of a film, displayed here through a depiction of technology as spectacle.</span></span></p> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" border="0" align="center" style="width: 488px; height: 145px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=13><img width="223" height="152" border="0" alt="" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/13.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=13> Fig.13</a></td></tr></table></span></span></td> <td><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><table valign="middle"><tr><td> <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=14><img width="223" height="153" border="0" alt="" src="/cmsdesk/userfiles/image/ranjani/14.jpg" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none"/></a></td></tr><tr><td align="Center" > <a class="navigation-a" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=14> Fig.14</a></td></tr></table></span></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em>Ram Balram</em> could not have been made before <em>Sholay</em> &ndash; the first film to professionalize action. Ramesh Sippy had the best stunt directors from Bombay and a team of professionals from the U.K. working with him during the shooting of the film. Until Sholay, action in Hindi cinema was mostly a &ldquo;last reel affair.&rdquo; <sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">23</span></sup> <em>Sholay</em> paved the way for a different kind of aesthetic which would go with a new kind of masculinity. The elaborate imagery in two posters of <em>Ram Balram (</em><a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=13">figs. 13</a> and <a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&amp;EId=106&amp;ImageId=14">14</a>) indicates this professionalization of action and marks the film as a big budget production.<sup><span style="font-size: 9px;">24</span></sup> The consolidation of a new techno-masculinity is also abundantly made clear in the erasure of the female protagonists in these posters. The absence of the women in some of these posters of <em>Sholay</em> and <em>Ram Balram</em> foreground the prevailing industry discourse that female stars don&rsquo;t help in the sale of films and that box office receipts always rely on the male stars. Many of the multi-star posters display these anxieties of the film industry, creating the visual arc through which Bachchan&rsquo;s superstar persona is refracted.</span></span></p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><sup><span style="font-size: 10px;">11 </span></sup></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Anupama Chopra writes that at the meeting where Salim and Javed narrated the story and dialogues for the cast of Sholay, both Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjeev Kumar wanted to play the part of Gabbar Singh. Both felt that Gabbar&rsquo;s lines were powerful and unique (Anupama Chopra, <em>Sholay: The Making of a Classic</em>, New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2000, 35.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>12</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Ibid. 153</span></span>.<br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>13</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Ibid.57-58.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>14</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Ibid.40-53. It took Ram Yedekar, the art director, a few months to create the village for the film in Ramnagaram which is an hour away from Bangalore. Chopra provides a detailed account of how the location was selected and then transformed. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>15</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The term &ldquo;spaghetti western&rdquo; refers to a genre of films that surfaced in the 1960s. These films were made by Italians and were shot in Italy and Spain. The films tended to be much more violent than the classic Hollywood Western. For more on this form, see Christopher Frayling, <em>Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone,</em> London: I.B Tauris, 2006</span></span>.<br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>16</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Richard Dyer, <em>Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society,</em> 2nd Edition, New York: Routledge, 2004</span></span>.<br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>17</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">For a more updated overview of the debates on Stardom, see Christine Geraghty &ldquo;Re-examining stardom: questions of texts, bodies and performance&rdquo; in Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams, ed., <em>Reinventing Film Studies</em>, London: Arnold, 2000, 183-201.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>18</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Beheroze Gandhy and Rosie Thomas in Christine Gledhill ed., <em>Stardom: An Industry of Desire</em>, London: Routledge, 108. The term &ldquo;multistarrer&rdquo; is an industry term, popularly used to describe the ensemble star cast of films. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>19</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">See Chopra, <em>Sholay</em>, 30-31</span></span>.<br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>20</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">One could also read the overwhelming presence of male stars in this period as a way of negotiating homoeroticism. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>21</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Amitabh Bachchan&rsquo;s performance in <em>Amar Akbar Anthony</em> was a major departure from the &ldquo;angry man&rdquo; image. Manmohan Desai had made a conscious decision to use the actor differently in the film which narrates the story of three brothers separated at birth and subsequently brought up as a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian. The film was the biggest hit of the year. Bachchan plays the role of the Christian. The song &ldquo;My name is Anthony Gonzalves&rdquo; picturized on Bachchan became a rage along with several other comic moments with the actor at the centre, adding considerably to Bachchan&rsquo;s star status as a &ldquo;complete actor&rdquo;. See the interview with Ketan Desai (Manmohan Desai&rsquo;s son) in the episode &ldquo;Comedy as the Weapon of the Weak&rdquo; in the television series, &quot;The Power of the Image&quot; directed by Shikha Jhingan and Ranjani Mazumdar, New Delhi, BITV, 1998</span></span>.<br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>22</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Stunt artists work as body doubles and despite the fact that action immediately conveys the idea of masculinity; the industry has a large number of stuntwomen. For <em>Sholay,</em> Reshma, a leading stunt woman of the period, performed two extremely dangerous stunts for Hema Malini. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>23</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Chopra, <em>Sholay</em>, 114.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><sup>24</sup></span></span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Director Vijay Anand had by now acquired a formidable reputation as a skilled filmmaker. His <em>Jewel Thief</em> and <em>Johnny Mera Naam</em> had boasted of spectacular action sequences but they were primarily &ldquo;last reel affairs&rdquo;. Action in <em>Ram Balram</em> formed a huge canvas and comparisons were often made with the violence shown in <em>Sholay</em>. Interview with Komal Nahata of Film Information, Bombay, April, 2003.</span></span></p> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td></tr></table><table style="width:850px"><tr><td></td><td align="right"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;color:#ffffff;">Select Page</span><select id="cmbPages" class="text-box" onchange="javascript:openPage();"> <option value="1">1</option><option value="2">2</option><option value="3">3</option><option value="4">4</option></select> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">function openPage(){ var i = document.getElementById('cmbPages').value; var path =window.location.pathname.substring(0,window.location.pathname.lastIndexOf('/')); if(i== 1) window.location.href = path + "/index.html"; else window.location.href = path + "/index_" + (i-1) +".html"; } var path =window.location.pathname.substring(window.location.pathname.lastIndexOf('/')+1); if (path.indexOf('_') == -1) document.getElementById('cmbPages').value=1; else {path = path.substring(path.lastIndexOf('_')+1); document.getElementById('cmbPages').value=parseInt(path)+1;} </script><a class="navigation-a" href="index.html" style="color:#ffffff;">Previous</a> <a class="navigation-a" href="index_2.html" style="color:#ffffff;">Next</a></td></tr></table><table style="width:100%;"><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a class="gallery-a" style="color:#ffffff;" href=http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/viewgallery.aspx?id=87&EId=106&ImageId=1>Visit The Gallery</a> </td></tr><tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="http://www.tasveergharindia.net" class="footer-a" style="color:#ffffff;"> Tasveer Ghar Home </a>-<a href="http://www.tasveergharindia.net/frmessaylisting.aspx" class="footer-a" style="color:#ffffff;"> Gallery </a>-<a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/pages/copyright.html" class="footer-a" style="color:#ffffff;"> Disclaimer on images </a>-<a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/pages/Contact_Us.html" class="footer-a" style="color:#ffffff;"> Contact us </a>-<a href="http://tasveergharindia.net/Unsubscriber.aspx" class="footer-a" style="color:#ffffff;"> UnSubscriber </a></td></tr></table></div><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8020078-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script> </body></html>