DESIGNER UNKNOWN
48
●
THERE IS AN AIR ABOUT INDIA / AIR - INDIA. 1965.
40x25
1
/
2
inches, 101
1
/
2
x65 cm. Prasad Process Private Ltd., Madras.
Condition A-: creases in corners. Paper.
A world-renowned and recognized corporate icon, Air India’s Maharaja was born in 1946, the creative
genius of Air India’s commercial director, Bobby Kooka, and Umesh Rao, an artist with the Mumbai
branch of J. Walter Thompson Ltd. “The Maharaja began merely as a rich Indian potentate, symbolizing
graciousness and high living. And somewhere along the line his creators gave him a distinctive personality,
his outsized moustache, the striped turban and his aquiline nose . . . Air-India calls him the Maharaja
for want of a better description. But his blood isn’t blue. He may look like royalty, but he isn’t royal . . .
Today, this naughty, diminutive Maharaja of Air-India has become a world figure. He can be a lover boy
in Paris, a sumo wrestler in Tokyo, a pavement artist, a Red Indian, a monk. He can effortlessly flirt with
the beauties of the world. And most importantly, he can get away with it all. Simply, because he is the
Maharaja” (The Chandigarh Tribune, July 17, 2005).
[600/900]
