For a show then yes, these days you have to drop water from under the skin to get the modern BBing look. If you are after that 1960's, even early 70's look then no you don't need to they had a 'fatter' look (not fat I know, but carried more water & slightly more healthy fat levels to the stage).
The prep is pretty much identical to a meat eating bodybuilder, even the macros you eat (carbs, pro, fat) are nearly the same (obviously there are individual variations).
To get into contest shape I have yet to see anyone hit a modern bodybuilding show using whole foods. All bodybuilding contest diets are pretty unhealthy. I think you could safely add in many more green leafy veggies than most builders seem to want to eat as they are virtually calorie free (& what calories they do have is ultra high in protein - just not much of it). But I haven't even seen that put into action I don't think (maybe Pat did during her brief bodybuilding phase?), but even with more green veggies it's pretty high in shakes & repetitive food eating over the 16 weeks you're getting ready for the show.
Things have improved with the availability of varieties of shakes so you can have hemp, rice, pea, soya, etc, but still shakes are poor cousins to whole food so it's not the healthiest lifestyle - potentially a lifter (say power or Olympic) could have a better diet as they could eat whole food year round just vary the amounts as they don't need to cut up like a bodybuilder does, just make weight.
So yes you do have to cut water to get onto a bodybuilding stage.
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