Bollywood's Holi in muted colours as recesssion drains pockets

Spicezee Bureau

Mumbai, March 11: Bollywood stars are known to celebrate the festival of colours ‘Holi’ with great grandeur and frolic. Here’s a look at what the Bollywood biggies have on their minds this Holi.According to reports, most of the film stars will spend the colourful day either shooting or meeting with their professional commitments. The reason being the fact that with recession hitting a high, no producers are willing to let stars enjoy an unscheduled break in the shoot to play Holi. A rather sombre mood has taken over the filmdom, with the people of Mumbai still trying to come to terms with incidents of terrorism that rattled their city in the past. There ain’t any big Holi bash happening in here this time round at least. This is what some stars had to say about their plans for Holi: The Bachchans are not celebrating Holi this year, though their home is an open house on Holi usually, but it will be a different case this year. When asked about his Holi celebrations, Amitabh exclaimed, “This year too many tragic events have happened around us. On a personal level, my father’s passing away then my mother’s prolonged illness have suspended Holi celebrations in my house. And then, of course, the things that are happening in Mumbai and the country... do you think anyone is in the mood for celebration? We’re not.” Abhishek and Aishwarya will be shooting in Kolkata for Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ravana’. Shah Rukh Khan is also giving Holi celebrations a miss. Preity Zinta, who is just back from a trip to New Zealand says, she will be trying to recover from the jet lag. “In any case I think Holi has lost its original spirit long back,” adds the actress. Deepika Padukone will be having a low profile Holi with her family and close friends, does that mean Ranbir too Dips? Farhan Akhtar won’t be in town for Holi, “I’ll be shooting abroad. It breaks my heart to miss Holi. Can’t be helped.” Bong beauty, Bipasha Basu says she has ‘no Holi plans’. “I’m allergic to Holi colours. I’ll spend Holi with my family devouring delicacies. It’s a diet-free day for me” added the actress. Whereas, the frontrunner of ‘Rajasthan Royals’, Shilpa Shetty has grand plans for Wednesday. “I’m throwing a Holi bash at my home. The whole industry is invited.” Riding high on the Oscar success of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, Irrfan Khan will be celebrating Holi in Dholpur, where he’s presently shooting for a film called ‘Paan Singh Tomar’. Other actors like Genelia D’Souza, Hurman Baweja, Rajeev Khandelwal and Celina Jaitley will be tied up with shooting this Holi as well.