Holi Bollywood Charades Movies: 12 Films With a Holi Scene
A Holi party has one quiet hour in it. The colors are done, people have changed, and the room settles into that stretch before somebody suggests a nap. That hour is the only part of the day a game actually fits into.
Every film below has a Holi scene in it, which is the whole trick: the room is already half thinking about the song, so the guesses come faster. If you would rather skip the list, the generator deals titles one at a time.
Why use films with Holi scenes for charades?
Films with Holi scenes work because the room arrives at them from two directions at once, the title and the song.
Ordinary charades gives a player one route to the answer. A film everybody associates with a particular scene gives them two, and somebody in the room will get there through the music rather than the mime.
It also solves the problem of a list that only one generation knows. Holi songs span fifty years of cinema, so a list built around them ends up mixed by accident rather than by effort.
Twelve Holi Bollywood charades movies
Roughly ordered from the ones a room solves quickly to the ones worth holding back.
1. Sholay (1975)
Two friends are hired to catch a bandit. The Holi song is the calm before everything goes wrong, and the title is one word that half the room will shout on the first gesture.
2. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)
Four friends take a trip that rearranges their lives. The Holi song is the messiest scene in the film, and the title is a full sentence, which sounds harder than it plays.
3. Mohabbatein (2000)
A strict principal runs a school where nobody is allowed to fall in love, so everybody does. The Holi song is the first time anyone in the film breaks a rule.
4. Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994)
A wedding stretches across three hours and roughly fourteen songs. One of them is the Holi number, and the title is a question, which is a strange thing to mime and a good one.
5. Baghban (2003)
Parents are split between their children and nobody comes out of it well. The Holi song is the one part of the film that is uncomplicated, and the title is a single occupation.
6. Darr (1993)
A man fixates on a woman who wants nothing to do with him, and turns up at her Holi party anyway. One word, one emotion, and no object to hold up.
7. 2 States (2014)
Two families from opposite ends of the country negotiate a wedding. The Holi scene happens on a campus early on. The number in the title does most of the work here.
8. Raanjhanaa (2013)
A boy spends years on a girl who never asked him to. The Holi scenes are the loudest thing in it. The title is one long word with nothing in it to point at.
9. Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)
A man decides he is marrying a woman who has other plans. The title track is itself a Holi song, so somebody usually arrives through the music.
10. Jolly LLB 2 (2017)
A small-time lawyer takes on a case far above him. There is a Holi song sitting just before the film turns serious. Three words, a number, and an abbreviation nobody can mime.
11. Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013)
Two families at war, two people who ignore that. Five words, two of them names, and it opens on colors being thrown. This is a late-evening title.
12. Padmaavat (2018)
A king lays siege to a kingdom over a queen he has never met. The Holi scene is a quiet one between two people. Save it for last, because the title is a name and nothing else.
How do you keep a Holi round moving?
Agree the turn length before the first person stands up, and make it sixty seconds.
Ninety sounds more generous and plays worse. A stalled turn with thirty seconds left is a room watching somebody fail in silence, and it takes two more turns to recover from.
Settle two rules up front. No sounds and no pointing at objects in the room, which is the rule everybody breaks within ten minutes. And one pass per team per round, so a hopeless title can be abandoned without anybody arguing about whether it was fair.
Split the teams yourself. Left to form naturally, everybody who knows the songs ends up on one side.
Holi Bollywood charades movies: questions people ask
What are the best Holi Bollywood charades movies?
The ones whose Holi song is more famous than the film, because the room gets two routes to the answer instead of one. Sholay, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Badrinath Ki Dulhania all qualify. Open with those. Keep the single-word titles like Darr and Raanjhanaa for later, when people have stopped being careful.
How do you make a Holi game work for all ages?
Pull titles from across several decades rather than the last few years. Holi songs run from the seventies to now, so a list built around them mixes itself. That matters more than it sounds, because it means each team holds at least one person who knows the answer, which is what keeps a round from being decided in ten seconds.
How many people do you need for Dumb Charades (damsharas)?
Four is the technical floor, two teams of two, but it is a poor game at that size. Six to sixteen is where it works. Below six one person knowing the answer ends the round instantly. Above sixteen the turns come round so slowly that people drift back into conversation.
What are some variations worth trying?
Reverse charades, where the whole team acts and one person guesses, is the best of them, because it removes the part people dread. Drawing the title instead of acting it works for the same reason. A third option is to act out a scene rather than the title, which suits a room that knows the films well.
Do you need a written list to play?
No, and a written list has one flaw: whoever wrote it cannot play. A generator deals a title to one person at a time, which puts the organizer back in the game.
Start the first round
Two teams, sixty seconds a turn, and somebody who has already been through the colors goes first. Let the titles come off a screen instead of a list somebody has to hide all afternoon.
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