Bollywood Pictionary

One person takes the phone and presses the button. A three second countdown runs before the film appears, so everybody else has time to look away. That person then draws the film on paper while the room shouts guesses, with no talking, no gestures, and no letters or numbers on the page. Press Solved when somebody gets it, or wait for the buzzer, then pass the phone to the next person.

Ninety seconds is the usual turn and it is the default here. Sixty keeps a big room moving. Two minutes is kinder to a group that has only just sat down, or to a drawer who is being asked to put a whole film on paper rather than a single object.

No. This is the rule most rooms get wrong. No letters, no numbers, no arrows pointing at a written word. You can draw a symbol that happens to contain a shape, but the moment you spell anything out the turn is over. Agree on this before the first turn rather than during someone's.

Go around the room in order. It is the simplest system and it stops the same confident person drawing every round. If you are playing in teams, alternate teams each turn so nobody sits out for long.

Split into two teams and seat them apart so guesses do not carry across the room. Above sixteen players, run three teams and rotate, which keeps the wait between turns short. Give a big room a shorter timer, because thirty people shouting at once gets to the answer faster than five do.