IndieFolio interviews Film Poster Designer Raj Khatri, Creative Head – Marching Ants
Raj Khatri is the man behind most of your favourite posters over the past decade. A creative head at Marching Ants, he has created some of the most iconic recent posters. IndieFolio invites him as he tells us about himself, the process behind the creation of film posters and his own personal artwork. Along the way he gives some great quips and valuable advice that all of us should heed.
Could you tell us a little about your journey to becoming Creative Art Head at Marching Ants?
It all started at a very early age. From when I was about 7-8 years old I used to love sketching and drawing. Obsessed with diagrams and images in my books, I used to be the one kid in class who drew everybody’s diagrams for them. I was very interested in cassette covers for Bollywood movie. I loved how they depicted the entire flavour of the film in one image.
As I entered college I got exposed to International movies and rock music. I loved creating my own mixtapes with my own versions of the album covers. I used to cut out cool pictures and letters from magazine and newspapers and paint with my sketch pens and markers to make my own album covers of the artists.
I was introduced to Photoshop in the early 2000s and it was love at first site. I had found the holy grail of design and I focused all my efforts into mastering the software. I used to take screengrabs of VCDs and use these images to create my version of movie posters.
I used to spend 8-12 hours daily on the computer working and learning.
I decided to drop out of the science stream and kept practicing my skills and few small jobs like making logos for friends and few small freelance jobs.
I joined RED INTERACTIVE as a junior designer in 2003 where I worked on Flash animation and vector artwork for an year , then later I did some freelance work but I still wanted to work with movies in one way or the other. On January 1st, 2005 I joined Epigram as a visualizer. The movie NAINA was the first film that featured my work.
I worked there for four and a half years and later I joined Marching Ants in March, 2009.
What is the entire process that goes behind creating a poster?
The first thing that happens in the process is that we experience the movie firsthand. Either we watch the film, are narrated the script or read the script. This way we get a feel of the movie which helps us a lot with the look to give the film.
Then we brainstorm and scribble together some ideas for giving a few different treatments to the film. After deciding on the 5-7 best ideas we proceed to the next step. Ideally, we would share our illustrations with the director but they often want us to create mock-ups of the different posters so we create them with stock images.
After the final poster is decided on we shoot it with the real actors and recreate the poster with greater finesse and in high resolutions.
How has the industry evolved over the years?
The industry has completely changed from it used to be. That evolution is a natural process and it will always happen. Everything has changed from the very act of scribbling on paper to now using a Wacom tablet to the advent of digital photography to the very idea of what makes a good film poster.
The world has become much closer now because of the internet. Everybody knows what everybody else is doing and there is a lot more competition. Filmmakers also want to make a push and kick it up a notch. They want work that matches international standards as our audiences also have higher expectations.
Early Bollywood posters were like ‘Indian Thali‘ aka ‘the kitchen sink method’, they had a little bit of everything. They used to feature the hero, the heroine, the villain, the goofy friend, an explosion or a fantasy background and a title. this method is still followed in regional cinema like bhojpuri movies. That is not to say that they were bad, some of them were really memorable like the illustrated poster of Bobby, Mera Naam Joker or Shyam Benegal’s Junoon or that cult poster of Kala Pathar with Mr Bachchan screaming with his blackened face and many more of such gems.
The 90’s started the advent of digital poster making and that brought in the concept of recreating movie scenes in posters. The DDLJ posters are great examples of this.
Right now, we need to focus on uncluttering our posters and creating something that captures the spirit of our film. Take the best from the world cinema posters be it hollywood, Asian or European and take the best in terms of art and design trends and thought trains and apply them in our industry and movie culture and create our own indigenous cult artworks.
Which poster artists’ work do you closely follow? Has their work influenced your own personal style?
The internet is my school and I keep looking at what people have done. I look at all work; be it good, bad or ugly. Everything has something to teach me. It always help me to keep a tab on what others are doing and knowing what’s trending in the field.
There is this concept known as Underground Movie Posters where artists create their own interpretation of movie posters either with or without official license. They take their own image of the film and project it into the posters and there is some awesome work in the category.
In terms of agencies, I really love what BLT associates is doing along with Ignition Print and The refinery
My favourite artists are Drew Struzan, Ken Taylor, Laurent Durieux , Alice X. Zhang, Lee Bermejo , Aaron Horkey, Grzegorz Domaradzki , Martin Ansin, Sam Spratt and Mukesh Singh.
Could you tell us about the recent campaign for Bahubali which you worked on?
For the Bahubali campaign we initially thought of giving it a larger than life fantasy treatment like LOTR but the director, Mr. Rajamouli wanted something with a more warlike feel with greater emphasis on action like the movies Exodus, and 300.
We didn’t want to use gold because we never wanted to project that it is a regular South Indian film. “Bahubali is not a generic South Indian film. It is one of India’s best films ever and it simply happens to be shot in a South Indian language.” This is the image that we wanted to create of the film and that is what we had in mind while working.
Aside from your work with Marching Ants, you also like to devote time to creating your own artworks. Could you tell us about them?
It all started five years ago in 2010 when my then girlfriend (now wife) gifted me a Wacom Tablet. It was a magical device and it exactly replicated the feeling of putting pen on paper. For me, this was a Eureka moment and it opened up an avenue in my life which has given me endless creative joy and satisfaction.
I finally saw a way to create work without it being work. An outlet for me where there was no boss, no pesky clients or creeping deadlines. It was my work where I was free to use my own style and everything in my own time.
In the beginning I created hyper realistic character portraits but then I realized that there is no point in me creating something that looks exactly like an image. I wanted to create something which looked real and handmade. A little messy, a little unclear but completely mine.
Pen and paper or digital, what’s your preferred medium to work on and why?
I am a big advocate for digital because it has just so many advantages. I have the utmost respect for artists who work on paper because that takes a great amount of discipline because you can’t change your approach to a project on paper once you’ve started it and you need to go through with it.
Digital is directly adaptable to however I want to tweak the project. I can take whatever I have created and immediately make whatever changes I want to it on Photoshop. I can also erase and go back on my mistakes with the press of a button. In fact, if I decide halfway through a project that I want a particular project to be in black and white then digital allows me to do that.
It’s true that digital does spoil an artist as one begins to take a lot for granted but currently, I think digital is the way I want to work.
Could you tell us about a situation in which you disagreed with the client’s initial idea and how you handled it?
That happens very often in my field and I always advise the client with what I feel will be better or more suitable. Sometimes they listen to me, sometimes they don’t. They come with certain ideas in their mind and are not open to change them or even listen to other ideas. At the end of the day it is their project and I do have to listen and create what they desire but I often make two versions, one according to what they have said and one with my own ideas put in.
Sometimes the clients look at what I have done and reconsider but other times when they don’t I just have to accept it. It is part and parcel of this line. Earlier I often used to get upset when my ideas got rejected but now I accept it. When I see any of my juniors in the same situation I was in. I tell them, “You put what you had in your mind onto the canvas and created something beautiful. It doesn’t matter that the client didn’t like it. You have created something beautiful and expressed yourself through this. Keep it, learn from it and move on”
What is the best advice that you have been given about your work?
I had been advised to learn to work and develop on multiple concepts simultaneously and believe me, this practice works like a boon for me specially during steep deadlines.
I also learn from everybody because everybody has something to teach me, be it small or big. I keep observing stuff and looking for cool things and images. You never know when they’ll come in handy.
I do feel that my body of work doesn’t have have enough typography and so I am planning to create a typography project series soon.
If you could start afresh in the industry, what path would you choose?/ What would you advise to a fresher?
Just because you know how to use Photoshop it doesn’t mean that you know how to make posters.
Formal education in the field is always helpful. I could not get into JJ School of Arts but I tried for it and looking back, I could have probably gone to another art school just to learn. They teach you a lot of basics and give a good base to which you can add your own. It is also a good way to judge a candidate and that’s what most prospective employers are going to do.
In terms of advice, it may sound clichéd, but “Don’t go after money! If you have the passion and the drive and excel in your work then money will follow.”
Also “Always keep improving and fall in love with what you do.”
When I see my posters on billboards across the city, I feel proud to have created them. In a way, I have also become a part of film history!
One more important thing is that just because you know how to use Photoshop it doesn’t mean that you know how to make posters. Photoshop is just a tool which one uses to make posters. Posters are much more, you have to tell a story through the poster.
One could say, knowing Photoshop well is like having the world’s best vessels and cutlery but to make food one needs to have a recipe and great ingredients too and that is where artists lack at times.
Do you believe that Indian creative professionals and artists are deriving enough from our culture? Should we focus more on our culture as a creative source for our work?
In terms of film posters, we always used to derive from our past until recently. Handmade posters in the earlier years had that artistic touch and style that only Indian painters used in their work. Nowadays, everything is edgy and slick and is up to the expectations of what the audiences want. Everybody wants posters in a particular way then what is an artist to do?
An artist can keep evolving his work and sometimes we do get a chance to work in the old world style in form of a reference or tribute to the bygone era. We should always keep in mind the project in hand and create something that is best for it.
What’s the best movie poster that you’ve created?
Once you say that you’ve reached your peak, there is nowhere to go but down.
I haven’t created it yet. I believe that my best work is yet to come because the moment I say that ‘This’ is my best project it means I can’t create anything better. It means that I have surpassed my peak and I can do no more. Once you say that you’ve reached your peak, there is nowhere to go but down. That is why I believe my best is yet to come.
Connect with Raj Khatri here. You can check out more of Raj Khatri’s work and follow him on facebook, instagram and twitter. His minimalist poster series is truly amazing. Do not miss it!
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