From Canvas to Cinema: How Raja Ravi Varma’s Paintings Changed the Visual Language of Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul (2020)

Krishna Urvashi

doi:10.63363/aijfr.2025.v06i06.2021

From Canvas to Cinema: How Raja Ravi Varma’s Paintings Changed the Visual Language of Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul (2020)

Author(s)	Ms. Krishna Urvashi
Country	India
Abstract	Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul (2020) translates the painterly idiom of Raja Ravi Varma into contemporary cinematic language fusing mythology through an analysis of mise-en-scène, colour, design, framing and character aesthetics. This paper investigates how Bulbbul extends Varma’s visual vocabulary, particularly depictions of divine femininity, into the film form. This paper also explores how the film transforms Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings and aesthetics into cinema language, studying continuity between Indian classical painting traditions and modern cinematic expressions. The analysis concentrates on colour palette, composition, light, texture and mise-en-scène, showing how these recreate the atmosphere of Raja Ravi Varma’s mythic realism. Not only that, it analyses the visual and emotional grammar of Raja Ravi Varma's paintings. It explores why and how the director might have adopted the painter’s aesthetic language to convey mood, morality and Indian cultural identity. The goal is to show the importance and meaning of the painterly frames within the film’s cinematic storytelling, interpreting them through the lens of a filmmaker. Raja Ravi Varma fused Indian mythology with European realism, turning Gods and legends into human yet divine figures and Bulbbul repeats that balance through her heavenly or spiritual yet emotional portrayal. The Director possibly uses Varma’s idiom to create a world that feels timeless and devotional instead of being purely narrative. Every visual frame in Bulbbul becomes an act of Darshan (a Hindi word which means ‘a sacred gaze’), inviting the audience to see rather than just watching it. The film doesn't copy Raja Ravi Varma; instead, it brings his ideas to life. His paintings make God look like a person, but Bulbbul does the opposite by making people look like divine painters. The director may want to bring back Indian mystical images into modern stories, where each shot tells a story about good and evil, purity and corruption and light and darkness.
Keywords	Raja Ravi Varma, Bulbbul, Cinematic Visual Language, Colour palette symbolism, divine felinity, anvita Dutt, mythological continuity, emotional realism, light and composition, Indian classical painting, symbolism in cinema, psychological depth, visual synthesis, Indian cultural identity, narrative and aesthetics
Field	Arts > Movies / Music / TV
Published In	Volume 6, Issue 6, November-December 2025
Published On	2025-11-15
DOI	https://doi.org/10.63363/aijfr.2025.v06i06.2021
Short DOI	https://doi.org/hbbz8g

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From Canvas to Cinema: How Raja Ravi Varma’s Paintings Changed the Visual Language of Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul (2020)

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