Isn’t this a cool studio/production house emblem? So very art deco and Indian, all at the same time. Incidentally, Delux Films was the defendant in a landmark copyright lawsuit brought by playwright RG Anand against them for their 1956 film “New Delhi.” He claimed that it was an unauthorized copy of his play “Hum Hindustani” but Delux won the case when it finally came before the high court in 1978 (in a nutshell: it was similar, but not similar enough). Who says the wheels of justice turn slowly?
The RK Studios logo is well known for being modelled on Raj Kapoor and Nargis:
It is usually prefaced by a short video of Raj’s father Prithviraj Kapoor performing a puja:
I love to watch it, and never fast-forward through it. Not sure why. Possibly because I love him and two of his offspring so much.
Here’s Famous Films’ emblem incorporating a Buddha figure.
I love V Shantaram’s Rajkamal Kalamandir studio (the lotus opens up and the girl stands):
That girl reminds me of the one from Prabhat Studios, which Shantaram also co-founded:
This one glowed, which I couldn’t really capture but it’s very fab too:
And this is a little dark, but interesting; I think the text says “Lead Kindly Light.” Um, okay!
Here are Gemini’s famous chubby twins blowing trumpets as they turn towards you.
And Nasir Husain’s (although I have no idea what it IS, I know I see it a lot! and usually before something highly entertaining):
Sunil Dutt’s Ajanta Arts has a cool spinning flower or wheel of some sort behind the statue:
I will never understand why Basant Pictures—where Homi and JBH Wadia made some great “B” movies full of craziness—was happy with something as boring as this.
This is a little better:
Quite a few producers were content to tone things down to more western-style imagery:
(Bhimsingh-Mehmood Productions)
and a great many (in fact most) didn’t bother to design emblems or logos at all, relying only on text:
which is actually a good idea if you aren’t going to work a little bit on something interesting!
