Shah Rukh Khan Sets New Record Buying 2 Mughal-e-Azam Posters for Rs 6.84 Lakh

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s deep passion for cinema and interest towards preserving India’s cinematic heritage came through when he outbid everyone at the Osian’s “Greatest Indian Show on Earth” auction for the two majestic Mughal-e-Azam (1960) original Offset Print Lithography posters for Rs 6.84 Lakh, establishing new records for Indian film posters. He picked up a 3-sheeter Offset Print Lithography poster for Rs 3,60,000 and a 2-sheeter poster for Rs. 3,24,000.

Mughal-e-Azam posters set new record

Osian’s “Greatest Indian Show on Earth” Series Auction of Rare & Vintage Indian Film Memorabilia held last night (12 Sept) in Mumbai elicited a brilliant response with sales of 163 Lots for Rs. 5,560,200 (US$ 92,670), equaling 73% of Total Lots offered and 122.7% of the Total Lower Estimate Value of the Auction (81.8% of the Total Higher Estimate Value).

The rare Gunga Jamna artwork, hand signed and inscribed by Dilip Kumar in 1962, went for a record Rs 216,000, purchased by the M. Morarka Foundation, led by Kamal Morarka who later stated: “Dilip Kumar is our National Treasure, he is unique, cannot be replicated again, like Ravi Varma, the Urdu language, certain rare manuscripts in Benaras, they all need preservation and support in all manner.” The wonderful six-sheeter poster of Mother India, which requires preservation work by the new collector also witnessed hectic bidding, finally selling for Rs 252,000.

 Appreciation of art at Osian’s auction

A photographic still of Mughal-e-Azam went for Rs 1,08,000. A photographic still of a Studio Portrait of Prithviraj Kapoor, 1956, hand signed in Hindi with “pyar bhara aashirwad” was among the Top 10 Lots Sold with a winning bid of Rs.80,400.

Appreciation of Art ruled in the auction with the Pyar Hua Iqraar Hua, 1999 Painting by Arpana Caur  notching up a whopping Rs 7,50,000. The Yahudi original hand-painted standee went for a staggering Rs 4,80,000. New records were created across all types of publicity material and memorabilia with a positive response from the film fraternity led by Shah Rukh Khan, Foundations concerned with India’s cinematic heritage and memorabilia and the die-hard Indian film fan / collector, especially from New Delhi and Nagpur.

Read more about History, Rare Heritage Stars Of Osian’s Film Memorabilia Auction

The growing awareness and endeavor towards preservation of our cinematic heritage was evident in the interest shown towards rare artworks and photographic stills belonging to some of the earliest films made by Prabhat Film Company and Prakash Studios by 3 major collectors, including documentary film-maker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. Dungarpur is known for his award winning film on pioneering archivist P.K. Nair Celluloid Man and the Film Heritage Foundation initiative, which has been doing pioneering work in preserving and restoring Indian classic films. Photographic Stills  of films such as Amrit Manthan (1934), Amar Jyoti (1936), Aadmi (1939), Padosi (1941), Rajput Ramni (1936), Baiju Bawra (1952) all established new highs.

 Earliest films and musicals establish new highs

The auction’s most popular section focusing on the Trinity – Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar & Dev Anand and Leading Heroines – Madhubala, Nargis, Meena Kumari, generated the greatest interest and frenzied bidding.

Other Lots which captured the imagination of the collectors were Lots featuring Madhubala, Shammi Kapoor and Rajesh Khanna, who have maintained their constant grip on the imagination of the Indian film fan with their charm and unique personality. The Rajesh Khanna Lots of Anand and Bawarchi witnessed the most competition while the poster of Junglee, one of the earliest designs by Studio Diwakar, established a high of Rs 72,000, while the lovely six-sheeter of An Evening in Paris went at a relatively low Rs 48,000.

Legendary stars maintain their grip on fans

Most other lots received reasonable interest especially some of the Lots from the N.N. Sippy Family Collection, such as the hand annotated scripts of Ghar and Meri Jung (Rs 48,000), establishing highs for that kind of memorabilia in India. The calendar art angle of Indian cinema also received its fair share of interest with Priya Paul of the Apeejay Group continuing to add to her wonderful popular culture collection with lots pertaining to advertising.

Neville Tuli, Chairman, Osian’s Group, who has pioneered the building of the interest and market for India’s arts and film memorabilia over the last 12 years added: “It is very good to see the film fraternity finally taking a much larger interest and responsibility in helping to preserve this fragile heritage. Further, organizations concerned with preservation are becoming more active and recognize that both visual and textual knowledge-bases need to be built to re-educate our people. The future looks brighter than ever before and with joint efforts by even a handful of like-minded individuals and institutions, much of the infrastructure-building burden which was upon the government can be taken on and shared by the private sector. This auction was one successful sign in that direction.”

#SRK @iamsrk passion for preserving India’s cinematic heritage came through when he bought 2 Mughal-e-Azam Posters. http://t.co/uocLFlPbSs

— Learning&Creativity (@LearnNCreate) September 16, 2014

About the Author

Antara Nanda Mondal ( 68 Posts)

Editor in Chief, Learning and Creativity; Consulting Editor, Silhouette Magazine. A former business journalist, Antara writes extensively on the changing trends of music, direction and filmmaking in cinema. Her articles aim to provide well-researched information on the legends of cinema for the movie and music enthusiast. She is also the Founder-Editor of Blue Pencil, a New Delhi-based publishing house. She edited and published Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman, the biography of SD Burman written by HQ Chowdhury. She has co-authored a chapter on Hemant Kumar's Bengali music in the acclaimed book The Unforgettable Music of Hemant Kumar, written by Manek Premchand. Her articles have also been published in Dearcinema.com and Du-kool.com. Antara is Editor-Creative Director of Wisitech InfoSolutions Pvt. Ltd.
All Posts of Antara Nanda Mondal