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Indian Bollywood Sleepover - Mehndi Henna

April 2012

Sarah in Georgia, U.S.A,

Runner Up

Many people have movie star Hollywood parties, so I thought why not have an Indian Bollywood party?! I am from India so that makes everything a whole lot easier but you may not be and that's okay, with this guide your Bollywood party will be amazing!  

INVITATIONS: First of all everything in India is big, like weddings for example have 600-700 guests so if you really want it to be Indian invite many people, but I recommend sticking to 10 or 12 ALL GIRL friends. To design the invitation you can use pieces of shiny, shimmery red card stock (red is the traditional bridal and party color). Then use a gold color to type (use a calligraphy like font) the basics such as  who, where, when, what to bring, and that it was a sleepover. Mail them out in matching envelopes or hand deliver them. 

LOCATION: I recommend using your own home by using a room like a sun room, and has open floor space, a T.V., and couches. If you want you could have it at a hotel suite but that is very costly. 

DECORATIONS: India is known for many bright colors so there isn't a need for theme colors. Start by buying cheap soft (not fleecy) fabrics in bulk. You should definitely include bright red, green, orange, yellow, white, black, pink, purple, and light blue. Hang them like streamers all over the house and cover all windows near the party area with them. Try to pin them to all the walls of the main sleeping area. These are like an Indian thing called a Dupata usually worn with traditional outfits, but multicolored fabrics will really help set the Indian scene. Another thing is these cloths, found in many places in India usually have sparkles and jewels on them, so, if possible, bedazzle or glue small sparkles or glitter to the fabrics before hanging them all over the house. This can replace streamers. But what is a party without balloons?? You can buy multicolored packs of 500 balloons at a local party store blow them up (not necessarily with helium)and hang them around with fabrics on the walls, try to stick within the colors used for the fabrics. Another cool thing to do is create a large, light brown balloon arch to welcome your guests. This represents an Indian landmark called India Gate, if you are not familiar with it, look it up. You are done with decorations now. For cups and plates, we used elegant white square plates and fake glass cups, we also bought a gold tablecloth and sprinkled it with red glitter. For a centerpiece we used red roses in a clear glass vase. 

PARTY SNACKS: We decided to use an Indian food theme, but Indian food is spicy and most of my friends can't tolerate that so we chose milder Indian food. As a snack we served a pita bread like thing called Naan and we brought olive oil to dip in, we also made samosas which are like pastry filled with potato. Both of these snacks can be purchased in the frozen aisles of Walmart or Trader Joe's. For dinner we served, once again Naan, and kabobs which can be purchased at most stores. Finally for breakfast we had an Indian thing called Dosa which you can look up and find a recipe for, but if you can't just serve pancakes which is very much like Dosa. 

CAKE:  I chose a chocolate cake but you can pick out whatever flavor you like. We covered mine with a light gold fondant and piped out Indian designs in red butter cream like the Taj Mahal, paisleys, and flowers. You will find out more about Indian designs below. 

ACTIVITIES: The first activity is something called Holi. There is a Hindu holiday in India called Holi and it means the festival of colors. You don't have to be Hindu to do this activity (I'm not.) So basically in India on this holiday people throw around colored powders on each other, think of it like a paintball fight. So we thought it would be really cool to die cornstarch different colors and everyone could get in their bathing suits and we could play hide and seek, tag and other games like manhunt while throwing the powders around.  Another activity to do is to watch a movie, for you it can just be a movie like outsourced, or a show like Jessie or The Big Bang Theory. If you are Indian I recommend putting on an Indian movie with subtitles for you and your friends to watch for example: Main Hoon Na, or Don.  For the Bollywood part you can have an India's Next Top Model" shoot. Use the same sparkly colored fabrics that you used for streamers and split into two teams. Your goal is to create the best outfit using the fabrics on one of your team members who will be a model. Take lots of pictures and have a parent judge for the best. The last activity is called Mehndi or in english Henna. Henna is a paste made of an Indian leaf you buy it in a cone and squeeze it out on your hand in a design then you leave it overnight and when you wake up your wash the paste off it leaves a stain in that design. It is like a temporary tattoo. You can look up designs online to see traditional ones and you can attempt those at your party or you and your friends can do hearts and stars and things like that. WARNING: This can get very messy. You can buy the cone at a craft store or at a local Indian store. 

GAMES: As we are older now we don't have many games to play at parties but there are a few. The first one is called "rode the elephant" as you may know many people ride elephants in India so a fun game is to split into teams of two and have piggyback races with each other this was actually quite fun. The other game is called "Hindi Freeze Dance" It is just like freeze dance but there is a twist. You have to dance Bollywood style! You can look up Indian dance moves and try to imitate them and listen to the hottest Bollywood Hits! My friends LOVED doing this. Also for the rest of the night we played traditional Bollywood music while playing sleepover games such as truth or dare. 

FAVORS: For favors we bought gold and red sparkly bags to hold everything. First we put in candy you can use lollipops and gum and other candies but we also used an Indian candy called Hajmola my friends fell in love with it. Beforehand, we bought small brown notebooks and wrote passport of them. Then we stamped it with the word "India" like a real passport. While you are at the sleepover party your parents can be gluing in pictures taken at the "fashion show" into the passport. Last we put in a small stuffed elephant from the dollar store and glued a piece of bright fabric as a saddle.  I really hope you like this idea and give it a try for your party it will definitely wow your guests and make them feel very "not at home""

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