37 Slumdog Millionaire Trivia Questions & Answers

Answer: On a riot-affected street of Mumbai

The young Jamal and his elder brother Salim lose their mother in a communal riot in Mumbai. They try to flee to save their lives. While they run through the narrow lanes of Mumbai to find a safe place to hide from the attackers, the brothers see Latika standing on the road and a man near them is being set on fire by a group of rioters. Jamal then asks Latika to come with them if she wants to live.

Answer: Amitabh Bachchan

Bachchan became the "angry young man" of Bollywood cinema with his performance there as an honest police inspector. Not mentioned in this movie is that Bachchan was also the original host of "Kaun Banega Crorepati" -- the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" used in the movie. Anil Kapoor, who played the host in the movie, appeared as a celebrity contestant on the actual show with Bachchan in 2001. However, Bachchan was not asked to play the movie's host, because the host's villainy (deliberately giving Jamal a wrong answer to get him to lose) was too variant from Bachchan's Bollywood hero image.

Young Jamal's determination to get Bachchan's autograph despite being trapped in a squat toilet created one of the most memorable images in the movie. Salim then selling the autograph for "a good price" while Jamal was being cleaned off by his mother also established their poverty.

Answer: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

The movie "Slumdog Millionaire" is about how an uneducated orphan from the slums of Mumbai (called 'slumdogs') was able to get all the way to the final question on the Indian version of the popular American game show. The format was the same as the original show with the exception that earnings were paid in rupees rather than dollars, with 20 million rupees the top prize.

Lead character Jamal, now a teen-ager, found a job as a "chai-wallah" (someone who serves tea) at an Indian call center. "Millionaire" was very popular in all of India and work at the call center practically shut down when it was on the air. Jamal learned, from one of the "tech guys", the best way to utilize the call center's technology, to get his phone call through to the show to become a contestant.

The "Millionaire" host was portrayed by well known Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor.

Answer: She puts red chillies under Salim's blanket.

The children at Maman's are shown sleeping on the ground during the summer. Latika and one of her friends collect some red chillies and put them under Salim's blanket while he is sleeping. Soon, Salim wakes up in pain and runs towards the shower to soothe himself while the other children, woken up by Salim's shriek, begin to laugh and make fun of him.

Answer: He operated a pay toilet.

Salim was shown charging people to use an outdoor toilet located at the edge of the slums at the start of the movie. When Salim lost a customer because Jamal was taking too long in the toilet, Salim got back at Jamal by trapping him in the toilet when he wanted to get Amitabh Bachchan's autograph. Jamal only managed to get the autograph by jumping through the toilet hole and holding Amitabh's photo high above his head so that it wouldn't get soiled. Salim still came out on top in the end, because he sold the autograph to a cinema projectionist while Jamal was having a bath.

Answer: The truth alone triumphs

This motto is expressed in Hindi as "satyameva jayate." In the movie, Jamal had to use his first lifeline, the "ask the audience" lifeline, here, although the police inspector noted that his 5-year-old daughter would have known that answer.

Answer: A call centre

Jamal knew the answers to one of the questions on the show because of his job at the call centre. Since the call centre employees had to pretend they were British to the callers, they were taught a little bit about UK to help them. One of the classes also included learning about UK celebrity gossip. Jamal picked up some of this while working there.

Though the word 'slumdog' has been used in the movie to describe people like Jamal, who live in the slums of Mumbai, I have never heard it or any vernacular variation of it used in Mumbai. Beaufoy coined it by combining the words 'slum dweller' and 'underdog'.

Answer: Dev Patel

"Slumdog Millionaire" was Dev Patel's first film. Born in London in 1990, he appeared on the British television show "Skins" in the role of Anwar Kharral. Patel won the Best Actor prize at the British Independent Film Awards for his role in "Slumdog". In an interview, Patel told of how the film's director, Danny Boyle, complained to his young daughter that he couldn't find the right actor for Jamal. She was watching "Skins" at the time and pointed to Patel on the television screen.

Imran Khan was a famous Pakistani cricketer turned politician. Rajiv Gandhi succeeded his mother, Indira Gandhi, as the Prime Minister of India, following her assasination in 1984. He was also murdered, in 1991. Christiane Amanpour was hired by CNN shortly after her 1983 graduation from the University of Rhode Island and was later named that network's chief international correspondent.

Answer: An eye-patch

Maman runs a racket on the pretext of an orphanage which makes the street-children beg on the streets of Mumbai. In order to earn more money, Maman's gangmen are shown to make some children physically deformed so that their appearance evokes sympathy from the passers-by. Jamal, Salim and Latika are also forced into this crime. However, none of them are physically harmed. Latika is shown in the film begging at the traffic signals of Mumbai wearing an eye-patch on her right eye. Thankfully, both her eyes remain unharmed.

Answer: A bow and arrow

Lord Rama is based on a real king, although he has been deified as one of the avatars (incarnations) of the god Vishnu. Vishnu is depicted with blue skin, but, unlike the presentation in the movie, Lord Rama is not depicted as blue because he is Vishnu in human form (a concept Christians should understand). Lord Rama is always shown with a bow, although it can also be in in his left hand or slung over his shoulder, and often shown with an arrow.

Some Hindus have complained about the depiction of the 1993 Mumbai Hindu-Muslim riots (the so-called "Bombay Riots") in the movie, during which Salim and Jamal's mother was murdered by the Hindu mob and the boys encountered someone dressed as Lord Rama. However, the riots were real, as were the thousands of ethnic killings associated with them.

Answer: She was killed in a Hindu-Muslim riot.

The boys' mother died while washing clothes in the river, beaten by a rioter. Still very young, the brothers took to living on a garbage heap. Their father was never mentioned.

Answer: Cherry

Maman wants to earn money by pushing Latika into the flesh-trade. He confines Latika in a rented house at Pila Street, a part of the red light area of Mumbai, and employs several people to train and teach her music and dance.

Answer: In a rubbish dump

The children were living in a rubbish dump when they were picked up by Maman. Latika was sifting through the trash looking for something to sell, and Salim and Jamal were asleep in a makeshift tent to escape from the sweltering heat, when Maman pulled up in a dirty yellow van. He offered Salim and Jamal cold bottles of soda, and brought all three children to live with others just like them in an old, rundown house. They were given food to eat and a roof over their heads, but Maman wasn't as altruistic as he appeared to be, for he only rescued the children to train them to be beggars for his own personal gain.

Answer: Surdas

The answer given in the movie was Surdas, the famous Indian blind poet and singer of the 16th century, which tied in well to this section of the movie, in which the singing beggars were blinded by the crime boss Maman to increase their earning potential (although Salim saved Jamal from that fate). However, the song is from the 1957 Bollywood movie "Narsi Bhagat", based on the life and work of the 15th century poet Narsinh Mehta. Gopal Singh Nepali was given the writer's credit for the lyrics, so he is the correct answer to the question, and Narsinh Mehta (whose poems inspired the song) also may be, but Surdas is not -- except in this quiz about "Slumdog Millionaire".

Answer: Work as beggars

Salim was put in charge of the beggar children while Jamal was trained in singing. The men planned to blind Jamal once he had learned to sing well, as that would make him earn more alms. Salim realized this and managed to escape with Jamal. He purposely left Latika behind as he hadn't approved of her being with them from the beginning.

All the sequences involving the earliest part of Jamal's life were shot in Hindi at the suggestion of Loveleen Tandon, the casting and co-director of the film. This stemmed from her inability to find young actors who could realistically portray slum children and speak fluent English. The three children cast as the young Jamal, Salim and Latika are all from the slums of Mumbai and continue to live there even now. The producers of the film have financed their education post the filming.

Answer: His blind childhood friend told him, after Jamal described the man on the bill.

Jamal's friend was purposely blinded by the leader of a Mumbai child crime ring, who rounded up orphans and trained them to beg on the streets. Blind children were more sympathetic and collected more money from begging than others. Jamal narrowly excaped this fate himself when his brother, Salim, became aware of what was about to happen and the brothers ran away from the children's camp.

Jamal and Salim began a life of scrambling for survival any way they could, including stealing shoes left outside a famous Indian historical site. They sold the shoes in open air bazaars, along with other items taken from tourists. In this way, Jamal came to have a $100 bill. He began seeking out his blinded friend amongst the beggars on the street, eventually finding him. When he did, he offered the bill which the blind boy held to his nose to smell. He recognized it as American money and asked Jamal to describe the picture of the man on the money. After Jamal did so, the boy said "Ah, Benjamin Franklin." Many years later, Jamal recalled this incident as he explained how he had the answer to something that no "slumdog from the streets" could possibly know.

Answer: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

The popular television series "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" has been used in the film. Scenes of this programme are shown many times, even when Jamal is not shown competing in the game-show himself, which is the main plot of the film.

Answer: By threatening to drop the baby

Salim went over to Latika and held out the baby. "Take her. It's for your own good," he said. "Babies earn double." When Latika refused, Salim said, "Take her now, or I'll drop her," and pretended to do just that. Latika reached out and grabbed the crying baby, while Salim just laughed. "Keep her crying and you'll earn triple," he told her. Jamal did not approve, but couldn't do anything to stop his brother.

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

Franklin was put on the $100 Federal Reserve Note when it was first issued in 1914 and has been there ever since. Between 1861 (when the U.S. first issued paper money) and 1914, the U.S. government had issued $100 notes featuring, at different times, Mexican War hero Gen. Winfield Scott, Civil War hero Adm. David Farragut, U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and U.S. presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and James Monroe. Since 1969, the $100 has been the largest U.S. bill in circulation, leading to the slang of $100 bills being known as "Benjamins."

In the movie, Jamal received a $100 bill as a tip from an American tourist couple while at the Taj Mahal (where he and Salim were unlicensed tourguides) and used it to locate Latika back in Mumbai.

Answer: He was suspected of cheating.

The movie used flashbacks to reveal how Jamal's tumultuous life experiences had provided him the knowledge to correctly answer most of the questions. The police tortured him in hopes of extracting the confession of how he cheated, but after hearing the path his life had taken they were forced to admit his story was "bizarrely plausible".

Answer: A vegetable sandwich

Javed is shown as the local don of the slum where Salim and Jamal spend their childhood. Later on, when Javed emerges as a powerful mafia don in Mumbai, Salim becomes a conman of Javed and Latika becomes Javed's kept girl. Latika is shown living in Javed's apartment when Jamal comes there and sees her. Soon, Javed comes back and drives Jamal out of his house because he believes that Jamal is a dishwasher and has not performed his duties well.

Answer: They placed them on his groin while he was sleeping.

Jamal and Latika picked the hottest chillies they could find, crushed them up (using gloves of course), and placed them on Salim's groin while he was asleep. Before long, Salim was awake and shouting in agony, to the delighted screams of the other children. Salim ran to the shower to hose himself down, and swore that he would get back at Latika.

Answer: Samuel Colt

The question in the movie was "Who invented the revolver?", but this phrasing is more accurate. Colt apparently never claimed to have invented the revolver, although he was the one who modified it in a way that made it successful. In 1818, 17 years prior to Colt's English patent for the revolver (1835), Boston's Elisha Collier patented a flintlock revolver in England, which was primarily used by the British army. Colt, who was from nearby Hartford, Connecticut, said that the innovations in his design were inspired by Collier's basic idea -- which is part of the reason that he patented his design in England a year before patenting it the U.S. Colt was also inspired by Eli Whitney (inventor of the cotton gin and one of the innovators of mass production), who in 1798 started a Massachusetts factory focused on building rifles with interchangeable parts for the U.S. Army. Colt's revolver had continuous-fire capability and interchangeable parts, which made it both useful and affordable ... and made him extremely wealthy, although it took the revolver a while to catch on.

In the movie, Jamal's older brother Salim called himself "the man with the Colt .45" when he demanded that Jamal surrender Latika to him, after he killed Maman and then was hired by the gangster Javed.

Answer: The Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal was also the place where the brothers stole shoes from visitors who were not allowed to wear them inside, as well as other items, which they then sold in outdoor bazaars. The Luxor Temple, Khyber Pass and Katmandu are in Egypt, Pakistan and Nepal, respectively.

Answer: Salim let go of her hand when she was trying to climb onto the train.

When Maman was going to blind Jamal, Salim created a diversion by throwing a bottle of chloroform in the face of Maman's henchman. Latika had been watching from a hole in the wall, and the three children made a run for it, with Maman and his men in pursuit. Salim and Jamal managed to climb onto a train as it was leaving the depot, but Latika was slower and was running to catch up. Salim held out his hand for Latika, but at the last moment he let go of her grasp to get back at her for the prank she pulled on him earlier. Latika was left standing at the side of the tracks. Jamal wanted to go back for her, but Salim told him what Maman had planned to do to his eyes, and convinced him that they would be killed if they went back. "Don't worry about her. She'll be fine," Salim said to Jamal. "She always is."