Tara Alisha Berry, actress
My best friend and I used to be super naughty and we’d hide in the balcony and throw water balloons at people who were obviously not expecting it. But one day, we threw the balloons on this huge truck of people who were celebrating Holi and they egged us in return! We were mortified but I guess we kind of had it coming.
Shoaib Ibrahim, actor A few years ago, I remember that I was fast asleep on the morning of Holi and woke up to see a surprise greet me in the mirror. I must have been in a deep, deep slumber because my friends had managed to smear colour all over my face without my realising a thing! As if that wasn’t enough, they drenched me in water as soon as I woke up too. It was an amazingly memorable start to my Holi that year, and is one of my most cherished Holi moments.
Sharman Joshi, actor We are a close-knit group of friends and we collectively landed up at one of the boys’ homes one Holi. There was a strict ‘NO alcohol’ rule at this particular friend’s home. So, after playing Holi in all our dirty clothes, we entered the house — sans any alcohol, of course — but armed with lots and lots of bhaang that we proceeded to secretly mix into our friend’s food. What happened next was utter craziness — a mad afternoon with him going on a laughter marathon, followed by a weeping marathon!
Sara Arfeen Khan, actress and producer I have played many pranks on other people, but I got pranked myself for the first time a few years ago when I took a day off from the shoot of Dhoond Legi Manzil Humein in Pune and came to Mumbai without realising that it was Holi and celebrations were happening everywhere. When I got home and called up my husband Arfeen, he told me to come to the neighbouring building to meet a few friends. I walked over to where he had called me and the place was deserted. It was like a dead town you normally see in zombie movies. And then, all of a sudden, a whole bucket of water was poured on me from above and a bunch of friends came running towards me armed with water guns, balloons, and more buckets of water! Even someone who isn’t terrified of Holi would have run for their life, and so did I. It looked like a bunch of zombies chasing me for a bite! I was ultimately caught, splashed, sprayed on and then thrown into a tub of God-knows-what-coloured-water!
Papa CJ, stand-up comedian My most colourful Holi was one that had nothing to do with colours. Having had a busy morning playing, I reached a private gig absolutely starving and on an empty stomach. To my relief, I saw a box of brownies and wolfed down five of them within a minute before getting on stage. It was only 20 minutes into my performance, ‘mid-flight’, that I realised they were bhaang brownies. I don’t know whether the client intentionally pranked me but they got a performance five times the length they paid for! Nandish Singh Sandhu, actor and entrepreneur I once pretended to be very high on bhaang on Holi, when I really hadn’t consumed any bhaang at all. A couple of friends had come over and I had organised for thandai at home and I pretended to be super intoxicated to the extent that I managed to get everyone wondering what was wrong with me. They were about to take me to see a doctor when I finally told them that I had been kidding all along!
Shaleen Bhanot, actor The craziest thing I have ever done on Holi is mixing colours with rasgulla juice and spraying it on people. They never got to know what I had done until they dried off and became really sticky, after which all of them ran to kill me.
Amaal Malik, music director I once lied to a friend that only white clothes were allowed at my Holi party. All set for the party, he came to my house. The harmless devil inside me decided to play a crazy prank on him. I kept a bucket full of coloured water on top of my cupboard, and asked him to open it and pass me my wallet and he fell for it! I had filled the water with lots of shampoo and conditioner to make it very slippery, so when he opened the cupboard he was drenched and kept slipping in that water while the rest of us laughed our hearts out!
Sumit Sethi, DJ/ Producer I made a friend of mine have thandai at a Holi party and later pranked him by saying that it was mixed with bhaang! He was shocked and surprised, as he refrains from all of this. He started laughing loudly, became loud in conversations, started dancing crazily and kept asking everyone how to get rid of it. Later, I told him that I was just joking and there was no bhaang mixed in the thandai at all!
Tanuj Virwani, actor I used to live in a colony where we would have these crazy Holi wars with 10 people from each side fully equipped with balloons, water guns and buckets of mud water. Once we were outnumbered and couldn’t get enough balloons ready. However, since we had to figure out a way to sabotage the other team, my friend and I bravely sneaked into their bungalow and stole all their balloons! Yes, it was evil, but we won the Holi war that year.
Kunwar Amarjeet Singh, actor and dancer While shooting for a Dil Dosti Dance Holi special episode a few years ago, I had sneakily asked my spot boy to go and get some bhaang. I then had him mix it with the thandai we had on set for the shoot and proceeded to make all the artistes drink it. Very soon, everyone was high and it was so much fun! The director was, of course, fairly angry about everything that was happening around him on set, but we all had a gala time!
