# The Dying Art of Rickshaw Painting

> How vinyl printing is erasing the hand-painted art that turned Dhaka's rickshaws into moving galleries

Published: 2026-10-06 · Desk: Editor's Pick · Source: TezzFeed Desk · By: Maliha Rahham

Before digital printing took over, a rickshaw in Dhaka could be much more than a way to get around. It could be a tiny moving canvas with bright flowers, birds, trees, movie stars and colourful village scenes painted across the metal panels often in colours so bright they could be spotted from halfway down a busy street. In 2023, UNESCO added rickshaws and rickshaw painting in Dhaka to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity describing decorated rickshaws as a kind of “roving exhibition.”

Artists painted scenes from films, portraits of movie stars, animals, flowers, rural landscapes and images connected to Bangladesh's history. Over time, the back of a rickshaw became a small space where popular culture and traditional folk art could mix together.

Rickshaw painting was also closely connected to another disappearing profession of hand painted cinema posters. Before Photoshop, digital billboards and giant printers, cinemas depended on artists to paint enormous posters by hand. Artists had to make actors' faces dramatic and recognisable, often using exaggerated expressions and bright colours to catch the attention of people walking past the theatre.

Some of these artists eventually moved into rickshaw painting as the demand for cinema posters declined. Nobo Kumar Bhadra, one of Bangladesh's better known rickshaw painters, began his career painting cinema banners before becoming known for his work on rickshaws. He learned the craft by working under experienced artists rather than through formal art training.

For many painters this was a profession learned through experience. Young artists would work alongside older painters by slowly learning how to sketch, mix colours and paint on curved pieces of metal. It was not simply about putting random colours on a rickshaw. Artists developed their own styles and had to work quickly enough to make the job financially worthwhile.

But then came vinyl printing. A hand painted design can take hours or even days to complete. A vinyl design can be printed much faster, produced in large numbers and stuck directly onto a rickshaw and it is also cheaper. For rickshaw owners who need to keep costs down, paying for a printed design makes much more sense than paying an artist to paint one from scratch.

This has had a major impact on the painters. The Daily Star reported that digital printing has increasingly replaced traditional hand painted designs because it takes less time and costs less. As demand fell, many artists left the profession for other kinds of work.

The decline of hand painted cinema posters followed a similar pattern. As digital printing became easier and cheaper, cinemas no longer needed artists to spend hours painting huge banners. The technology was more efficient but it also meant that an entire group of skilled artists suddenly had fewer customers.

The style itself never completely disappeared because rickshaw art has influenced modern Bangladeshi fashion, graphic design, posters and home decoration. Its bright colours and exaggerated characters are still recognisable even when they are being reproduced digitally.

Some artists are also trying to keep the traditional craft alive through exhibitions. In 2025, an exhibition at Alliance Française de Dhaka featured the work of Nobo Kumar Bhadra, including hand painted cinema posters, sketches and paintings on tin sheets. An art form that was once seen constantly on the streets was now being displayed inside a gallery.

That is what makes the decline of rickshaw painting so interesting. The art itself has not disappeared, the process is disappearing. A printer can reproduce the same bright flowers, movie stars and colourful landscapes but it cannot replace the person who spent years learning how to paint them by hand. These artists turned ordinary rickshaws into moving pieces of Bangladeshi popular culture for generations. Dhaka's streets were their gallery and every rickshaw was another canvas.

HTML: https://tezzfeed.com/editors-pick/the-dying-art-of-rickshaw-painting-1791303335623
Bangladesh desk: https://tezzfeed.com/bangladeshi-news.md
Agent map: https://tezzfeed.com/llms.txt