Billa
Artist
Ramachandraiah and Raju
Date2009
MediumLithograph
Dimensions20 1/4 x 30 in. (51.4 x 76.2 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LineGift of Gail Anderson
Object numberPH.7117
DescriptionTelugu cinema is known as Tollywood. With Kollywood and Sandalwood—also South Indian—it is one of the three largest film-production centers in the country after Bollywood. In 2010, the region housed about 62 percent of the country’s movie theaters. A remake of a 1978 Hindi film, Billa is a Telugu-language action thriller starring Prabhas, one of the highest-paid and most popular movie actors in India. Although this poster is written in Kannada, it advertises a Telugu film. Since India is home to countless languages, it is not uncommon for the residents of a single city to speak a different language from that of their neighbors. Thus, some Bangalore locals would not have been able to read the text on this Kannada-language poster. Language barriers of this kind necessitate such immediately recognizable imagery as portraits of celebrities.On View
Not on view
