Lollywood is a series of oil paintings on canvas that are refering to various film posters of Lollywood productions. The word “Lollywood” refers to the Pakistani film industry, based in the city of Lahore. The name is a conflation of Lahore and Hollywood.The male hero of these action films is replaced by Shahram Entekhabi´s face - adding another aspect to his multiple identities in migratory context. The series of paintings is done in collaboration with painters of film posters for movie theatres in Lahore, Pakistan.
Manganhar’s medium of choice is acrylics, a water-based alternative to the oil paints used on billboards. His art is meant to represent real-life situations with the exaggerated and surreal images of local cinema. **The artist’s women are full-lipped and seductive while the men are moustachioed and burly. He has tried to represent the pictures with the effects of projected film.
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“He uses film imagery and recreates it in a different combination to portray the emotions and feelings of a viewer,” said Quddus Mirza, the curator of the show. “The black-and-white pieces are nostalgic and even the coloured work is more about the memory of film rather than the representation.”
In a small office in Lahore’s film district Royal Park, painter Sarfraz Iqbal is as busy at work as ever. The 68-year-old, who is also known as S Iqbal, has been designing and painting film posters for decades but his name often goes unnoticed. His iconic work includes painting of veterans Waheed Murad and Rangeela, to the more recent ones such as Zinda Bhaag and Ishq Khuda. This legend of an artist deserves more credit and recognition than he is given as he is currently the last of traditional poster artists the city has to offer.
I would pull out those scenes which had a very important role in the film or a scene that would speak out to the audience,” he explains his reasoning behind painting a specific scene from the movie. Designing hand-made posters, large or medium, is time-consuming and can even take months. Thus, Iqbal spent hours planning, drawing and painting posters on a wooden desk
