Holi Songs: Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone celebrates Holi in Bollywood style

If Thailand can brag about the Yi Peng Lantern festival, if Spain can show off La Tomatina and Brazil can thump their frame drums at Rio Carnival, we can throw back a handful of colors at them because we got Holi. Festivals are a great way to have a fantastic time while engaging in social bonding customs. Not to mention it’s incredibly exciting to spice things up and Bollywood has a long-standing tradition of celebrating madcap Holi both on and off the screen. Big names like Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan hosted lavish Holi parties where the entire A-listers of B’town participated in these wildest jamborees wearing white kurtas and sporting garlands around their neck. Nevertheless, these sparkling affairs continued to the silver screens and the matinee idols turned them into sterling memories.
We look back at a few of them as the entire nation wants to plunge once again into the crazy festival of colours. The best Bollywood Holi memories gave us vibrant songs and iconic filmy moments.

Sholay
Holi ke dil khil jate hain

This iconic song was composed by R D Burman and penned by Anand Bakshi. In order to bring down the notorious bandit Gabbar Singh, Thakur Baldev Singh employs two lesser lawbreakers Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra). Gabbar’s men were refused, threatened, chased away from Ramgarh and Gabbar decides to strike back during the festivities of Holi. Preceded by an iconic scene when Gabbar (Amzad Khan) delivered one of the most memorable moments of Indian Cinema- Kitne Aadmi they? Holi Kab hain, Kab hain Holi? which later went on to become hot properties followed by a cult status and is still equally popular among the avid cinema lovers of today. This epic saga of confluence merged Eastern, Western patterns of filmmaking.

Silsila
Rang Barse

Allegedly Silsila was a film that was nicely segued from a very talked-about rumour of a love triangle between Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan and Rekha. This was also the last on-screen outing to feature the very popular pair of Rekha and Amitabh. The film did an average business at the box office but gained a strong cult following and is considered a landmark in today’s context as well. And if you don’t have Rang Barse in your Holi party playlist then the party is doomed. It was composed by Harivanshrai Bachchan and crooned by the baritone megastar himself. This iconic song still rotates on a loop and sets the tone for the festival of colours throughout.

Darr
Ang se Ang lagana

Shahrukh Khan plays Rahul, a young man who turns violent when Kiran (Juhi Chawla) doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. 1993 has been a very successful chapter in Khan’s career, but it had all the right ingredients that could have stalled it. Yet, King Khan carved a hero out of a scoundrel and post-Baazigar Darr was definitely a bold step that worked out magically. Khan created history and went on to become the eternal Rahul for Yash Chopra’s following ventures. Initially, it was offered to Aamir Khan who rejected it and suggested Shahrukh. And during the Holi sequence, the overtly obsessed loverboy plunged all boundaries and turned the celebrations and fanfare into a nightmare. The song was composed by Shiv-Hari and was written by Anand Bakshi.

Mohabbatein
Soni Soni

The runtime was a staggering 3 hours and 36 minutes yet the audience loved the portrayal of love and fear between Narayan Shankar (Amitabh Bachchan) and Raj Aryan (Shahrukh Khan) throughout. On the contrary, it was a tale of an eccentric music teacher whose sole intention was to convert Gurukul into the forbidden garden of Eden yet the audience graced it by showering appreciation. Mohabbatein worked as a springboard for six aspiring performers including Uday Chopra yet except Jimmy Shergill no one else survived to enjoy the flight. Some call it worse and others can still connect with the guilty pleasure of nostalgia. The Holi sequence is one of the many mini mutinies orchestrated by Khan. The track was composed by Jatin Lalit and Anand Bakshi wrote the lyrics for this song.

Yeh Jawani hain Deewani
Balam Pichkari

This new age iconic Holi number was scored by the lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya himself. His hearty, colloquial, passionate rendition of joy holds a special place in everyone’s heart. Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone thumped their way into our hearts and it’s difficult to restrain one’s pelvis from committing a step or two when this beast comes into action. The colourful milieu of the video adds to the madness and everyone ends up participating. It was choreographed by Remo Dsouza and was shot in 4 days. It still remains one of the topmost played Holi songs for everyone.


So, get dressed in your white kurtas and get ready to drench into the madness once again this year and don’t forget to groove it out with your favourite Holi Song. Have fun.