Celluloid scores a century

Artist Atul Dodiya finds Bollywood’s villains, such as Mogambo from Mr India and Gabbar Singh from Sholay, far more inspirational than the heroes who vanquished them.

Artist Atul Dodiya finds Bollywood’s villains, such as Mogambo from Mr India and Gabbar Singh from Sholay, far more inspirational than the heroes who vanquished them. “They are much more interesting as characters,” he says. “Most of them were also played by much better actors than those who played the heroes.”

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Dodiya will pay tribute to these iconic baddies through an exhibition of 14 oil paintings on display as part of Cinema City, a multidisciplinary project that has been in the works for the past four years and is now culminating with an exhibition at National Gallery of Modern Art, Kala Ghoda. Initiated by NGO Majlis, a centre for rights discourse and interdisciplinary arts initiatives, the exhibition will showcase art works such as calendar drawings, paintings, installation and movies, created by artists Puspamala N, Shreyas Karle, Anant Joshi, Atul Dodiya and Sudhir Patwardhan; and documentaries by filmmakers Avijit Mukul Kishore, Rafeeq Ellias and Renu Sawant.

In addition, the students and faculty of Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture have created an interactive installation on the sweat shops of Bollywood.