The challenge was to create a poster that would be adaptable to various collaterals such as hoardings, tickets, catalogue covers and invitation cards, and also a strong visual that was easy to recall. Instead of an iconic mono-graphic, I created a background, a kind of tapestry of the city of Mumbai.

The poster presents a visual that recedes, offering space for the announcement of the Mumbai Film Festival. The viewer sees the poster as a landscape of the city as well as a space of dwelling. Film is a very popular subject and film-watching is a highly favoured activity in India. Every Friday stirs hopes, plans and economies for those who make a film, those who screen it and all of us who view it. This sense of viewing, enjoying and coming together to watch a film, is the idea behind the poster.

The poster is also an ode to the traditional hand-carrying of film reels from one cinema to another. This act of sharing and providing is characteristic of the Mumbai Film Festival, which has a remarkable collection of films every year.The poster is representative of the layered and ever-evolving characteristic of Mumbai.

(Vidha Saumya is an artist and the brain behind the MFF Poster this year)