Ekta Bhattacharjee is the Bengali film industry’s go-to person for their posters. With over a decade’s experience, Ekta undoubtedly made film and theatre posters noticeable again through her passion for art. Her posters speak for themselves. When t2 dialled Ekta, the woman who started her career in poster designing as a ‘one-man army’ and is presently ruling hearts across industries and cities, for a chat and asked her how many Bengali films are waiting in the pipeline for her, a very excited Ekta said: “Just a minute, I have it written. I think about 20… one, two, three… there are 35 projects in the pipeline. But it is just the month of March!” It has been 11 years in the industry “without a single day off” and this poster queen from Calcutta is not planning to take one anytime soon. “I want to keep working,” said Ekta, with a dash of enthusiasm in her voice. Excerpts from the chat:
LOVE FOR THE HAND-DRAWN
Barrackpore girl Ekta Bhattacharjee, who now lives in Calcutta, still loves being called a Barrackpore girl. Her love for drawing from a very early age paved the way for her career in designing posters. “Like everyone takes up a co-curricular activity during childhood, I took up painting and drawing. I was always fascinated with art. Satyajit Ray inspires me. I always felt that even if he hadn’t directed films or written stories, he would still be this famous for his art. There was a simplicity, message and portrayal of the entire theme of the film in his posters and most of the posters were hand-drawn. That really inspired me and I somehow felt that this art or medium of hand-drawn posters is getting extinct. That’s how I started exploring this art,” said Ekta.
It was a turn of events that stopped her from leaving the city to pursue an MBA and continue with her passion. “Actor Phalguni Chatterjee followed my work regularly on Facebook and encouraged me not to leave the city. He told me that I was meant for a longer race. My parents were not sure and even I wasn’t. In a middle-class family, we first want a stable job. But I still decided to stay back. I used to participate in several inter-college competitions. It was t2 that featured my work during an event at St. Xavier’s College, apart from the winner’s. That was 11 years ago. Reading that article my parents were convinced that I was doing something constructive and I was not on the wrong path,” recalled Ekta.
DESIGNING PROFESSIONALLY
Starting her career by designing posters for short films for friends to theatre posters, book covers and then films — Ekta took t2 through the highlights of her professional journey. “Tathagata Ghosh, a director now, used to make lots of short films for his college projects. We were both Satyajit Ray fans. He asked me to design the posters for his films first. That was in 2013 and my Facebook was filled with notifications of appreciation after he revealed it. Then Phalguni Chatterjee again reached out to design posters for his theatre group. Later, I worked for Soumitra Chatterjee and Poulami Bose’s theatre group, Mir Afsar Ali, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Chandan Sen and Shantilal Mukherjee. Imran Zahid from Bombay, who does theatre based on Mahesh Bhatt’s films, contacted me. One day, Mahesh Bhatt himself called me to do posters for these plays. Following that, a lot of Bombay and Bangalore theatre groups started approaching me. There was a time when I was associated with 25 theatre groups all over India. Then director Paromita Munshi asked me to do book covers. She took me to a publisher and then I got into designing book covers. At that year’s book fair, I had designed 12 book covers. Then came film work. Director Subhrajit Mitra asked me to design the poster for his film first. Next year, I signed 22 feature films. It was a big year,” recalled Ekta.
FORMING EKTA CREATIVE TALES
Talking about forming her company, Ekta Creative Tales, she recalled the most important advice that Prosenjit Chatterjee gave her. “In 2017-18, I formed Ekta Creative Tales. It was Ekta before. Prosenjit Chatterjee told me not to change the name but to add just a prefix or suffix. The logo was important, he told me. Then I started working on advertisement and brand campaigns. In 2017, I got to work on the Maradona campaign when he was in India for a tour. I slowly stepped into pandal design. In 2019, I thought it was high time to expand and introduce my company’s motion department. (S.S) Rajamouli’s first AD, Ashwin Gangaraju, is doing the film 1770 and we worked for that. Then I thought of introducing VFX and got associated with a company in Bombay. My primary motto was to give an opportunity to Bengalis working outside the city to return to Calcutta. In the last five years, I worked on at least 4,000 projects,” said Ekta.
However, to cater to the high demand for her artwork in industries spanning films, theatre, brands and books, Ekta’s work is no longer restricted to hand-drawn now. “After one point I realised I needed to cater to all types of people. I had to learn the other art forms and design formats and did not just restrict it to hand-drawn, otherwise I would end up losing those works. They have different requirements for printing and hoarding and hand-drawn would not always support it. I didn’t restrict myself to one medium. I still do hand-drawing but I learned other mediums as well. We have an office now both in Calcutta and Bombay,” said Ekta.
CHALLENGES
Ekta considers herself to be very lucky in this profession. However, the journey was not devoid of challenges. “People told me three things — without having someone in the industry it is difficult, a woman designer would not be able to make it alone and will need a partner or investor, and coming from the suburbs I won’t be able to make it without contacts in south Calcutta. Thankfully, to date, I have not needed any of these. I started as a one-man army and I love my team. I took up these sentences as challenges,” said Ekta.
The hand-drawn poster of Padatik
MASTERING THE ART OF POSTER DESIGNING
What stands out in Ekta’s posters is that they are way beyond the typical. Explaining her work process, Ekta said: “When I sit to discuss the poster of a film it is not just about the art. It is about the entire film. Be it a Srijit Mukherji film or a Nandita-Shiboprosad film, I get very engrossed in it. It is very challenging to express the two-and-a-half-hour film through a poster. When I listen to the story, I try to visualise something from the film. Probably a scene or characters who did certain actions and I try to portray them on paper. That’s how I do the draft of the artwork. Reading the synopsis of the film again and again helps a lot. I rarely visit a set. The last time I visited a set frequently was for Shastri. Mithun Chakraborty worked in this film and I wanted to work with him. I had several opportunities to meet him before, being a huge fan, but didn’t want to meet him without working with him. His journey inspires me a lot. He was very appreciative of the resolution I made.”
POSTER DESIGNING IN THE LAST DECADE
Talking about the X-factor of her poster designs, Ekta said: “I always had a vision that poster designing is not just about the faces. It is about the entire film. Though the regional industry functions at a shoestring budget as compared to the national industry, I always thought people should not be able to take their eyes off the first teaser poster of the film. I treat each subject differently. Another thing I did when I started designing theatre posters was to do thematic ones. The usual posters had a black background with the actors and the names. When I started doing theatre posters, I started doing photo shoots with the actors. My vision was always different. Not that all my posters are good but I try to do something where people can’t take their eyes off it.”
PLANS AHEAD
Ekta’s future plans are not just restricted to designs but also the growth of her company and generating employment for those who are passionate about designing. “I want to help people do what they love doing rather than shifting to a different sector altogether. I have a wing of my company called Soi, where married women or underprivileged or working women who couldn’t pursue their dream of designing, work as freelancers for me from their home. They are from Naihati, Kakinara, Burdwan. After their office hours they work for me and I pay them per project. I feel getting to do what you love doing is important,” said Ekta.