Slumdog Millionaire Trivia Questions

Answer: London

John le Carre fans are familiar with London's Cambridge Circus, because it is the location of the headquarters of British intelligence (known as "the Circus") in his books.

In the movie, Jamal (now a "chai wallah" -- a maker of tea) learned London landmarks from pretending to be in England during his work in the call center (as an "assistant phone basher", as the host put it at first, or, more accurately, as a fill-in during breaks) ... and also learned when to call if he wanted to get on "Millionaire" as a contestant.

Answer: Cherry

Latika had grown into a beautiful young girl. She was also given dancing lessons by Maman. He had hoped to sell her to the highest bidder at the right time. She had been renamed Cherry for her life as a prostitute. Salim shot Maman and rescued Latika from the brothel. However, he then wanted Latika for himself even though he knew how much Jamal cared about her. This led to the brothers separating, though later Salim claimed to have left messages for Jamal.

Answer: Who was the third Musketeer?

As children Jamal and Salim were in school only long enough to read part of "The Three Musketeers" and thus they knew of Athos and Porthos. When they befriended Latika she became the un-named "third Musketeer". Although he didn't know the name and his last lifeline on the gameshow offered no help, Jamal correctly guessed the third Musketeer was Aramis.

Answer: Jack Hobbs

As noted in the movie, Hobbs (from England) scored 197 first-class centuries during his career from 1905-1934, a record that is unlikely to ever be broken. (Some sources credit him with 199, but Hobbs himself said that the two in dispute should not be counted.) In the movie, Jamal answered Hobbs after using his 50:50 lifeline, ignoring the incorrect answer Ricky Ponting, a current star for Australia, that he had been fed by the host. As a result, the host had Jamal arrested by the police on suspicion of cheating, although the police finally released him after hearing his stories about the events of his life that led him to know the answers.

Jimmy Bridges was the bowler when Hobbs broke the previous first-class centuries record. Mumbai's Sachin Tendulkar holds the records for most test centuries and most one-day international centuries, but he is not one of the 25 batters with 100 or more first-class centuries.

Answer: Latika

Salim had given Latika his cell phone and car allowing her to escape from the safe house she had been hiding at, from crime lord Javed. Salim's was the only phone number Jamal knew. Latika answered but she didn't know the answer to the question. Jamal simply smiled, happy in the knowledge that Latika was safely away from Javed, and guessed the answer to the 20 million rupee question.

Answer: They steal from the audience.

Salim, Jamal and a bunch of other street kids were shown stealing the handbags and belongings of the people watching the show. Jamal was shown briefly watching the opera, but that didn't stop him from stealing a purse or two. The opera being performed was Christoph Willibald Gluck's "Orphée et Eurydice", which was based on the well-known Greek myth. According to the legend, Orpheus was so saddened by the death of his wife, Eurydice that he journeyed all the way to the underworld to convince Hades and Persephone to release her. The myth had some parallels with the story of Jamal and Latika, as Jamal spent most of the movie trying to save his true love, Latika, from Bombay's "underworld".

Answer: Aramis

Isn't this too easy of a question for one that is worth 20 million (2 crore) rupees? Aramis was the third musketeer; D'Artagnan became the fourth musketeer; Cardinal Richelieu was the musketeers' archenemy (although still trusted by the king); and Planchet was D'Artagnan's trusty servant.

In the movie, Jamal and Salim referred to themselves as Athos and Porthos, but they never learned the name of the third musketeer, although Jamal thought of Latika as the third. This added to the irony when Latika answered the phone after Jamal used his "phone-a-friend" lifeline to call his brother before giving this answer. Finally, Jamal just guessed when she also didn't know, stating that maybe "it is written" that he would win. And so it was.

Answer: The railway station

Jamal had promised Latika that he would wait for her at VT station everyday at 5 pm. She had tried to meet him there earlier but was caught by Salim and his gang and taken away.

Victoria Terminus or VT station was renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in 1996. However, Dev Patel, who played the older Jamal, was unable to pronounce the name and hence the old name is used in the movie. Most people in Mumbai still refer to the station as VT though CST is also catching on now.

Answer: He was killed by Javed's henchmen, while sitting in a bathtub full of money.

After living a life of doing whatever it took to get ahead, Salim performed the ultimate sacrifice by helping his brother's true love (Latika) escape from their crime lord boss, knowing he would be killed for doing so. After she left in his car, Salim locked himself in the bathroom, lined the tub with all the money earned in a life of crime and sat back seemingly at peace as Javed and his crew burst through the door with guns blazing.

Answer: Salim

Salim had brought a gun to the brothel, and could have walked away with Latika and his brother, but he couldn't take the risk that Maman wouldn't come after them, so he shot and killed Maman. Later, Salim went to seek out Javed, a rival of Maman's, who offered Salim a role in his organization. Latika was surprised but grateful that Jamal had come back for her - she thought that Jamal had forgotten all about her. "I never forgot. Not for one moment," Jamal said to Latika. "I knew I'd find you in the end. It's our destiny."

Answer: Mohandas Gandhi

It is not believable that Jamal would not know this answer, since an identical picture of Mohandas K. "Mahatma" Gandhi, the creator of "passive resistance" and the architect of Indian independence in 1948, appears on all Indian paper currency. Instead, the bills are differentiated by size, by color and by the picture on the reverse side. In fact, the current series of Indian currency, which has been in use since 1996, is generally known as the "Mahatma Gandhi series."

Although you need to answer 15 questions correctly to win on "Kaun Banega Crorepati", the same number needed to win on both the U.S. and U.K. versions of "Millionaire", Jamal was only shown answering nine questions in the movie -- the nine questions that make up the rest of this quiz. Viewers have no idea what happened to the other six questions, which are not discussed, but it hardly seems possible that someone who didn't know Gandhi's picture was on all Indian paper currency could have answered any other questions without suspicion, let alone six of them.

Answer: It is written.

After speaking with Latika on the phone Jamal appeared to be calm about answering the question, although he did not know the answer. His philosophy of "it is written" indicated to him that he was destined to win and he correctly guessed the last answer. Not knowing how to find each other after the show, he and Latika eventually meet at the train station, a place that had figured in their lives previously.