MUMBAI: The last hit Holi number that Bollywood churned out was Do me a favour...let’s play Holi from the Akshay Kumar-Priyanka Chopra starrer Waqt — Race Against Time.

That was in 2005. Five years later, Vipul Shah is testing the waters shooting yet another Holi song. This time with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Neha Dhupia using organic colours in Action Replayy. Instead of the regular Holi song visuals of chiffon-clad heroines drenched to the bone, the AR Holi song — Jali toh bujhi na kasam se koila ho gayee haan — has been shot without water.

Says Vipul, “We saw no point in wasting 70-80 tankers of water for a three-day shoot, given that Mumbai is facing a water crisis. As a responsible citizen, we chose the dry Holi concept to picturise this Shreya Ghoshal song, penned by Irshad Kamil.” But can Vipul himself conceive of playing a dry Holi? “It’s difficult but I will be this year. I haven’t seen Ash playing Holi but I expect to meet her today. Neha is in Bangkok and I’m not sure if I’ll meet her.” As to why there are so few Holi songs in Hindi films now, Vipul says, “My Waqt song became a huge hit. But then, it’s played only during festivals. There’s no fun in shooting a beautiful song that’s played only during festivals. However, the AR song isn’t just a celebration of Holi. One has to wait for the film to release to find out.”