Page 498 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

CINMA BANNER PAINTING 495

uncertain in this profession. Therefore, the artists are not concentrating very much on
each piece of work. Owners of a number of painting workshops told us that they do
not get the pledged amount of money from the producers/distributors for painting the
banners, if the film for which the banner was painted does not make good business. It
may be mentioned in this context that the painters along with their entire family pray
while painting the banner that the film is a commercial success.
It is notable that the painters of cinema banner get paid at per square feet rate. In the
50s the payment was Tk.1 to Tk.1.25 per square foot. Now it has become Tk. 8 -10
per square foot. The artists have to bear the necessary expenditure of the work but in
some cases the owner of the workshops bears it.
The condition of the painters of Syedpur is now worse. They get the contract directly
from the owner of cinema halls. Tunu Miah (40) confided that the owner of the hall
gives him some money for the paint and the other necessities although he is not sure
of the remuneration he is going to get from him for the finished banner. But in Syedpur
even 10 years back the artists used to get Tk.1,000 for a 7x12 square foot. banner and
Tk.1,600 for a 7x18 square foot banner (fig. 11.4). Besides banners, cinema painter
Tunu Miah now does rickshaw painting as well for the sake of survival.

3
Cinema banner painting has added a new dimension to the history of painting of
Bangladesh with its unique qualities and individual characteristics. Firstly, we may
consider the size and number of the banners. The length and breadth of banners may
normally be 7ft. to 40 ft. They can be even larger if necessary. No one can tell what is
the exact number of these huge and innumerable paintings executed by the cinema
banner painters so far.
Secondly, the reason for which cinema banner painting deserves importance is its use
of color. The painters primarily use bright colors to attract the general people.
Especially the use of pink, yellow, bright blue and green (different fluorescent colors
are also being used recently) gives cinema banner painting a different dimension.
Apart from this, the painters use yellow or white outline to highlight or separate a
figure from the background which is another extraordinary characteristic of cinema
banners. It may be mentioned that, an influence of cinema banner paintings in the use
of colors of some of our contemporary mainstream artists’ work is noticeable.
Thirdly, these banners are displayed in places where large numbers of people
assemble. Even though the aim of its display is totally commercial, cinema banners
reach common people quite effortlessly. As it reaches mass people it can be identified
as ‘Public Art’. For more than fifty years cinema banner painting is being exhibited in
different places throughout Bangladesh. Despite the downward trend of the film
industry, it is still surviving. This very information gives strength to the assertion that
cinema banner painting has wide acceptability by the people of Bangladesh (both in
urban and rural areas). Thus, can we perhaps state that it reflects the taste and artistic
sense of the mass people of Bangladesh?