Back in the 80s a writer under the pseudo name of Mastram was a hit among testosterone-raging crowd ‘coz of his pulse-racing erotica, and today designer Kunal Naik is in limelight for creating more than 20 quirky and suggestive posters for filmmaker Akhilesh Jaiswal’s new movie, which is based on the legendary porn author. The gold-medallist from JJ’s School of Art talks to Pandolin about the craft of coming up with the eye-catching art.

Kunal Naik

The posters of Mastram have been creating a lot of buzz. And we hear there will be 35, a record-breaking number, such artworks out till the film hit the cinemas. Where did the idea to create so many posters emerge from?

Mr (Sunil) Bohra saw my work (posters) for Vakratunda Mahakaaya – a Marathi film produced by Anurag Kashyap, which is yet to release. It’s a film by Punarvasu Nayak. He told me, ‘Dude, there is a very interesting film, but it’s very difficult. It’s about a porn writer.’ So I said, ‘How can it be difficult if it’s about a porn writer. Everyone has been seeing porn since ever… It’s a very dear subject to everyone behind the closed doors’. I gave him seven to eight poster ideas, and he loved it all. I think he saw the potential in the film’s subject and decided to create 35 posters and use it is a marketing strategy for the film.

What was the brief given to you to conceptualise the posters?

Mr Bohra told me very clearly that the film is about a porn writer, who actually didn’t want to become one. And Mastram isn’t a porn film. So we had to very consciously communicate that. The first poster of the film was a collage made from covers (with firang women) of books written by the real Mastram. It’s no longer in print, but the production team did a wonderful job of sourcing the books from small towns across the country. That created the first buzz. Then I said let me sit and intellectually masturbate, and it started following like no one’s business.

Can you tell us about the thought process in creating these designs?

I was very clear that we had to go completely different from what the film publicity looks like. And we had one objective to let people know that there was a porn writer called Mastram in the era of 80s and 90s. Since he was a writer I decided to use elements that pertained to a writer. And add the sexiness, cheesiness and the pornographic treatment without showing nudity or offending material. The idea was to get a smile on people’s faces. It’s easy to show a cleavage or a big butt, but it’s not arousing enough. It will not make you think. When people see, they should first notice a beautiful design, a visually-appealing communication and then they should see it’s a film poster, but a very different one. So that was the whole creative process that got initiated. The posters of Mastram have an element of sexiness to it. There’s an element of intelligence and design. It’s very graphic. It’s connotative. And it’s very clean and clear that we are talking about a writer and not talking about porn.

Interestingly each poster is different and the entire series is a mix of graphic visuals and photographs. Did you follow a theme/pattern for the designs?

No, I didn’t follow any pattern. The brief that I gave myself was that this man is a writer and I have to show his state of mind through the writing elements. And keep it suggestive. So there’s a graphic representation of navel, a nib, a woman’s body parts, etc. We first released seven-eight of such posters to get people curious about the film. Then the second campaign was born out of the book titles like Aspatal main pehli suhagraat and characters from it. So if it’s a hospital then the first thing that comes to the mind is a sexy nurse. Then there’s an air hostess / pilot flying on the pen. There’s a school girl with a lolly pop in her mouth. See, Mastram was  not a very polished writer, but had a great imagination power in the way he worded his stories and his titles. There were no qualms in writing absolutely what he felt ‘coz he was anonymous. In fact the biggest idea is in the film title’s font. And that is where it all actually began from. Within 45 minutes of knowing the title, Mastram, I cracked the logo. It was a natural flow. I didn’t have to try very hard to create these visuals.

Have you read any books by Mastram?

Mastram’s books are in Hindi and it was popular in the 80s, so I hadn’t read any of it. But, after I got on to the project, out of curiosity I went through a few paragraphs and patches.  They were very crass and raw, but absolutely creative in terms of sexual content.  

A while ago the poster advertisements on buses invited a lot of ire from public. Apparently the posters had to be redesigned.

The story that I had heard was that after seeing the posters some school kids who still don’t understand the definition of porn went back and asked their parents and teachers about porn writing. Whether it was a situation created or real I don’t know. Anyway, so we changed the creative by not making it offensive in words. They asked us to remove two punch lines: ‘The legend of porn writing is back’ and ‘Agar aap inko abhi tak nahin jante toh kripya aapne papa, tau, chacha se puche turant’.

Can you tell us how you got into film poster designing?

I have been designing film publicity material for about six-seven years now. The first film I worked upon on Dombivli Fast, by Nishikant Kamat. We got introduced as friends, and later ended up working together. Then I did Mumbai Meri Jaan. After that I designed for Sanjay Jadhav’s Checkmate, for which I won the Best Publicity State Award from Maharashtra. So this is how I entered the film publicity, design, poster art department. Before that I was into advertising. Since college days I have been doing fine arts: painting and creating art installations. So I do that as well. I have done two self-curated shows. I created art for designer Arjun Khanna’s store.  I design spaces. I am currently designing Nishikant Kamat’s office. I designed the logo of Indra Dhanush, the auditorium at Rashtrapati Bhavan. I play the mouth harp (morchang) and have been organising World Mouth Harp Festival of India at Arambol, Goa for last two years. I created art for designer Arjun Khanna’s store.

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That’s impressive! Coming back to poster designing, you have worked on a hard-hitting Dombivli Fast as well as a light-hearted Mastram. What is the experience of working on such diverse projects?

The experience is like a roller-coaster ride because every film is different. Every filmmaker’s ideas are different. Every film has a different space in the head. All the elements, the characters, the actors, the music is different. Films are like an ocean – a compilation of many little rivers. So every time you have to do what the filmmaker wants. You may come with the technique that signifies your style, but it can’t be only that. My design sensibilities will come across as consistent. But the content and ideas will change as per the film’s demand. Also call it my creative ego, but in a good sense that whenever I get an opportunity I want to change the trend. When Checkmate happened, it was given the Best Publicity State Award of Maharashtra of that year. It was because it had changed the outlook towards film posters.

What is your opinion on the current scenario of film posters in our country?

Pehle do hand-painted posters lag jate the, and it would work. But now people have evolved. Advertising has become a part of a regular household. Even mothers have started noticing the packaging of products. Internationally poster art is a big thing. People go and buy posters. Now people have understood that we have to make this (posters) a very important part of filmmaking as well. Publicity nowadays starts a month to six months prior to the film. And then the international market has opened up. Our people are on juries of international film festivals and they have got back a lot of how a film has to be projected. So all these things have led to changes, which is a great thing. As a result people like me get an opportunity to do edgy and creative stuff. Otherwise it is very easy to put two cutlets or shoot the stars and make a poster. But usmein mazaa nahin hain, that’s done. Now people want to see the concept on the poster as well. And the biggest thing is that people have evolved.

What’s the best feedback you have got for the posters of Mastram?

The other day I was in a rickshaw and going to pick-up my son. The auto driver asked me, ‘Saab, yeh Mastram kaun hain?’. On hearing that I had a big smile on my face. Then he said, ‘Yeh film dekhini padegi kyu ke saab jagah isi ki baat ho rahin hain’. So I immediately called up Mr Bohra and told him what had happened. I told him not to spend money on any research for feedback. This is a bigger thing than the award. It’s a reward. Rickshawallah is the common man. These are experiences that assure that your work is reaching to the masses as well as the classes.

 -By Rachana Parekh