rickshaw mudflaps

In the summer parched city of Ahmedabad, in north-western India, a rickshaw rattles by, adorned with vibrant airbrushed mudflaps of favorite Bollywood legends, capturing a bloody or steamy film moment, with the protagonists waiving guns, bottles, and cigarettes, and sporting larger than life sunglasses. The images are loud and brazenly colored, as well as signed with a flourish by their respective artists. These artists work in the back rooms of tin shacks, down dusty chowks in the open autoparts bazaar of Ahmedabad, amid horns and other custom tooling for the swank rickshaw driver.

Rickshaw Mudflaps of this type are only local to Ahmedabad. Each city or region in India maintains an informal identity in its semi public transport (rickshaws, taxis) through the use of indigenous styles of graphics centering around the cult of Bollywood.