They Filmed It In India Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Darjeeling Limited

Over many films, Wes Anderson has proven himself to be a master of his own aesthetic consisting of distinctive and muted colour palettes and meticulous framing, and "The Darjeeling Limited", while certainly more colourful due to its Indian flavour, is more of the same. Released in 2007, the movie followed three brothers played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman as they traveled onboard the titular train through India, two of them not knowing that they were to be searching for their estranged mother. Both Jodhpur and Udaipur were used as backdrops in the film.

Answer: Eat Pray Love

Based on author Elizabeth Gilbert's personal life, "Eat Pray Love" chronicles her post-divorce trips to Italy, India, and Indonesia as she enjoys food, finds her spiritual side, and reignites her inner passion along the way. Julia Roberts plays Gilbert in Ryan Murphy's adaptation and the India portion, centered more around the 'pray' portion than anything, visits the cities of Delhi and the nearby Gurgaon district. Gilbert's original novel, released in 2006, was a major bestseller boosted in popularity by Oprah Winfrey.

Answer: Slumdog Millionaire

"Slumdog Millionaire", based on the 2005 Vikas Swarup novel "Q&A", played out in a "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" soundstage and with the police, but how our contestant protagonist knew the game's answers allowed for flashbacks to events in his life, most of which took place in the city of Mumbai, specifically in the slum of Dharavi. To stand in for Dharavi, scenes were instead filmed in the more upscale Juhu, further northwest along the coast, because production would have less of a chance to be interfered with by locals.

Answer: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Directed by John Madden (not the football guy; I checked), "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" and its 2015 sequel, the "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel", was a romantic comedy featuring a group of seniors who headed to India to enjoy their later years, opting to live in a hotel run by Dev Patel. Scenes for the film were produced throughout Rajasthan, but mostly in and around Jaipur and Udaipur.

Some were filmed in the city of Kishangarh, and many included famous local landmarks like the Amer Fort and the beautiful city palace.

Answer: Octopussy

The thirteenth James Bond film in the series and the sixth with Roger Moore, this 1983 release was the second-to-last to feature this actor in the role. Despite brief scenes starting the film in Berlin, the bulk of the film is set in India and follows a story laden with expensive jewellery, Soviet-era spies, and Indian scenery (including a floating island on a lake).

The film was mostly made in the city of Patna which, interestingly, is more than a day away by train, far across the country.

Answer: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol

The fourth "Mission Impossible" film, "Ghost Protocol", put Tom Cruise back into the role of Ethan Hunt and ended up becoming one of the top-grossing films of the year, losing out to the final "Harry Potter" and the penultimate "Twilight" films (amongst others).

The movie actually jumps to many locations including Dubai (in which Cruise scaled the Burj Khalifa for scenes), Moscow, and Budapest. The Mumbai scenes featured a high-tech driving scene and led directly into the climax.

Answer: The Bourne Supremacy

The sequel to "The Bourne Identity", "Supremacy" took place a couple of years after the first, still following Matt Damon's Jason Bourne as he sorted through his fragmented memory while leading himself into another action-packed scenario sending him to Naples, Berlin, and Moscow.

The opening act took place in Goa on India's west coast though they were the last to be filmed. Damon returned again for "The Bourne Ultimatum" in 2007 and again for "Jason Bourne" in 2016.

Answer: Life of Pi

While 'Pi' Patel's story starts in Puducherry (then, Pondicherry) on India's southern tip, the bulk of this fantastic tale takes place on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific where, in Yann Martel's award-winning novel, Pi was stranded with a small group of animals scheduled for transport across the ocean, but forced into close quarters due to a shipwreck. Ang Lee filmed the earlier scenes in Puducherry, as per the book, as well as in the State of Kerala, but the bulk of the movie was shot in Taiwan, Lee's place of residence. "Life of Pi" was nominated for several Oscars, losing Best Picture but winning Best Director.

Answer: Jobs

"Jobs" filmed early scenes in both Delhi and the northern city of Vrindavan to collect scenes for Steve Jobs' 1974 trip to India in his pre-Apple years. Kutcher was specifically filmed in a number of Delhi landmark destinations including Chandni Chowk and Humayun's Tomb.

The movie while somewhat panned, chronicled Jobs' life from his college years to 1997, a few years before Apple truly boomed in the home computing and electronics market. It premiered in 2013, two years after Jobs' death from cancer.

A significantly better-received biopic of Steve Jobs, also entitled "Steve Jobs", released in 2015 with Michael Fassbender in the lead role and Danny Boyle directing. It was set well after the India trip.

Answer: Zero Dark Thirty

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow after she received the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for "The Hurt Locker", "Zero Dark Thirty" chronicled the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden all the way to his compound in Pakistan; India wasn't even the setting. That said, when it came time to film the movie, the city of Chandigarh in Northern India was outfitted to stand in for the cities of Abbottabad and Lahore.

The film wound up on critics' best-of-2012 lists at the end of the year and won one Oscar with five nominations (it took Best Sound Editing).