A-Z Famous Indians Trivia Quiz

Answer: Amitabh made his film debut in 'Bombay to Goa'

Amitabh Bachchan is one of the greatest names in Bollywood. He was born in 1942 to the famous poet Harivanshrai Bachchan and Teji. He made his debut in the 1969 K A Abbas movie 'Saat Hindustani'. He also acted in the movie 'Bombay to Goa', but that was in 1972.

He became famous thanks to his role of a police officer in 'Zanjeer', in which his co-star was Jaya Bhaduri, who later became his wife. He was the undisputed number one Bollywood star in the late 1970's and 1980's. In 1984, he contested the Lok Sabha (parliament) elections from Allahabad constituency and won.

But his association with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi resulted in controversies, after which he withdrew from politics. He has also appeared on television in the famous 'Kaun Banega Crorepathi' series (based on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'). Amitabh's son Abhishek married the actress Aishwarya Rai in 2007.

Answer: Mathematics

Bhaskaracharya or Bhaskara II lived in ancient India from 1114-1185. He is famous for his book 'Lilavathi' which is a treatise on mathematics. He wrote on topics like quadratic equations, mathematical analysis, calculus, properties of zero, computation of pi, etc. The book was named after his daughter Lilavathi.

Answer: The author of a treatise on politics and economics

Chanakya, also known as Kautilya and Vishnugupta was a Brahmin who lived from 250-283BC. He is instrumental in the founding of the Mauryan Empire. According to legends, Chanakya was insulted by the Nandas, who ruled India. He swore revenge against them and helped Chandragupta Maurya to become the King. Chanakya served as Chandragupta's Prime Minister and wrote the famous 'Arthashastra', which is a treatise on economics and politics.

He taught at the Takshashila (Taxila) University. He is also believed to have helped Chandragupta forge a deal with Selecus Nikator, Alexander's General.

Answer: Reliance

Dhirubhai Ambani (1933-2002) started off his career as a seller of yarn. He later decided to set up a factory to manufacture polyester. His flagship company was known as Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). He was one of the first to start an IPO (Initial public offering) in 1977.

He later ventured successfully into the petro-chemical industry. He was known for being highly influential and was accused of unethical business practices. After his death, his company was managed by his sons Mukesh and Anil.

In 2004, the company split, with Mukesh taking charge of RIL and the other son Anil in charge of Reliance ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group).

Answer: Kalinga War

Emperor Ashoka (304-232 BC) was one of the greatest rulers of the Mauryan empire. According to some legends, he is believed to have killed all his brothers to ensure that no one challenged his accession to throne. The Battle of Kalinga in 265-264 BC resulted in the death of thousands. Ashoka was reportedly shocked when he saw the thousands of corpses strewn around. Also his wife (a Buddhist) left him after the battle. Moved by this experience, he embraced Buddhism and was responsible for the growth of Buddhism in India and in other parts of South Asia.

The Ashoka Pillar at Saranath has the symbol of a four headed lion, which was adopted by India as its national emblem.

Answer: A former President of India

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1905-1977) was the President of India from 1974 to 1977. He is known in history for agreeing to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's decision to declare a state of emergency in 1975. His decision helped Indira Gandhi to rule over India as a dictator from 1975-1977.

Answer: Mohandas

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869. He was known for his contribution to the Indian freedom struggle. His experience of apartheid in South Africa led him to come back to India to participate in the freedom struggle. He soon became a leading figure of the Congress Party.

He was famous for his simple life and his principle of ahimsa (non-violence). He used ahimsa and satygraha (truth) as the main weapons to fight against British rule. He was called as Mahatma (great soul) in recognition of his principled life.

In 1947, after India gained independence, he worked for peace between Hindus and Muslims who were separated after partition of India and Pakistan. His work for communal peace earned him many enemies. On January 30, 1948 he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic called Nathuram Godse.

He is called the 'Father of India'.

Answer: A stock broker

Harshad Mehta was a notorious stock broker who was known as the 'Big Bull'. He was known for his role in the stock market boom in the start of the 1990s, but it was later revealed that he had manipulated the banking system, causing banks to ask him to return the funds.

This caused a massive chain reaction leading to the stock market crash of 1992. He caused a controversy when he accused the then Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao of receiving kickbacks. After his arrest by police, he died in mysterious circumstances in 2001.

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi

Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) was the daughter of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. She married a Parsi named Feroze Gandhi in 1942. After Nehru's death she joined the union Government of Lal Bahadur Shastri. After Shastri's death, she became Prime Minister of India in 1966.

She was known for her socialist policies which included abolition of privy purses and the nationalisation of banks. During her rule, India defeated Pakistan in 1971 and helped to create Bangladesh. She also earned fame with her decision to carry out a nuclear test in 1974 at Pokhran.

In 1975, beleaguered by court cases, she declared a state of emergency and ruled India with an iron hand. She was defeated in 1977 and arrested, but bounced back to power in 1980. Following the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, she earned the enmity of Sikh terrorist groups, who assassinated her on October 31, 1984.

Her son Rajiv Gandhi succeeded her as Prime Minister. Sonia Gandhi is the widow of her son Rajiv. Indira is no way related to Mahatma Gandhi.

Answer: Akbar

Jahangir was one of the key rulers of the Mughal Empire. The Mughal Empire was founded by an Afghan named Babur in 1526. Jahangir was the son of the great Akbar. Following Akbar's death in 1605, he became Emperor. He is known in history for his decision to allow the British East India Company to trade in India, which later helped the British to rule India. Jahangir's son was Shah Jahan, who built the famous Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan's son was Aurangzeb who was hated by many and instrumental in the gradual collapse of the Mughal empire because of his misrule.

Answer: Kapil was the first Indian to take all ten wickets in an innings

Kapil Dev Nikhanj played cricket for Haryana, before he made his entry into the Indian cricket team in 1978. He was known for his right hand swing bowling and for his aggressive batting. He was known as the one of the great all-rounders of cricket along with Pakistan's Imran Khan and England's Ian Botham.

He captained India in the 1983 World cup, which India won beating the formidable West Indies in the final. This win made him a national hero. In 1994, he became the highest wicket taker in test cricket by breaking Sir Richard Hadlee's record.

In 2002, he was named by Wisden as the Indian cricketer of the century. In 2007, he associated himself with the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL).

Answer: True

Lata Mangeshkar was born in 1929 and at the young age of 13 she entered the film industry as a playback singer. Soon she became the prima donna of the Hindi film music industry. She has sung some of the most popular songs in the history of Hindi film music. Apart from Hindi, she has sung songs in more than 20 languages.

She has received numerous awards including the 'Bharat Ratna', the highest Indian civil award. Lata Mangeshkar's sister Asha Bhosle is equally popular and famous and the two sisters dominated the Hindi music industry from 1950s to the 1990s.

In 1974, her name was entered in the 'Guinness Book of World Records' as having sung the highest number of songs. It was claimed that she had sung more than 30,000 songs. However, the Guinness book dropped this record in 1991, after complaints about the authenticity of the record. Lata herself has maintained that she has no track of how many songs she sung.

Answer: An actor turned politician

MGR or M G Ramachandran (1917-1987) was a famous film actor in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. His film performances were so popular that he attained demi-god status. He entered politics by joining the DMK party. He later split the DMK party in 1972 and formed his own party called AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam).

He became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in 1977 and ruled over the state till his death in 1987. He was the first film actor to become Chief Minister and later on a number of other film actors (probably inspired by him) joined politics and occupied important official posts.

Answer: Infosys

N R Narayan Murthy founded the software development company Infosys in 1981, in a garage in Pune. Soon his company grew by leaps and bounds and became the largest IT company in India. The growth of his company helped his home city of Bangalore to become the 'Silicon Valley of the East'. He served as Chairman and Managing Director of Infosys and retired in 2006.

Answer: Rajneesh

Rajneesh was a controversial 'god man', known as 'Osho'. He gained fame in the 70s and 80s as a mystic guru and had a large number of disciples from different countries. The activities of his ashram came under the scanner of the authorities and he was arrested in the USA and later on shifted to India. He died in 1990.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is another famous Indian spiritual guru who heads the Art of Living movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is another famous mystic who was popular in the USA. Puttaparthi Sai Baba is yet another god man in India famous for his miracles and social work.

Answer: NDTV

Dr. Prannoy Roy is a famous Indian media personality. NDTV (New Delhi Television) was founded by Prannoy Roy. He gained fame by producing and hosting the show 'The World This Week' on Doordarshan in the 1980s. In 1989, he introduced psephology (science of election opinion polls) in India by successfully predicting the number of seats the Congress Party would win.

He was famous for his election shows. He initially worked with Rupert Murdoch's Star group and later started NDTV channel in 1998.

Answer: Slave Dynasty

Qutb-ud-din Aibak founded the Slave dynasty in India in 1206. He was a slave of the Muslim invader Mohammed Ghori. After Ghori's death, Aibak founded the Slave Dynasty and became the Sultan (Emperor) from 1206 till his death in 1210. The famous Indian monument Qutb Minar in Delhi was built during his reign.

Answer: He was the first Indian in space

Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian in space. He was a squadron leader in the Indian Air Force and was selected as a part of a joint Indian-Soviet space team. On 2 April 1982, Rakesh Sharma went with other Soviet cosmonauts to space in the Soyuz T-11.

Answer: True

Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) is one of the most famous social reformers in India. He was instrumental in popularising Vedanta (propagation of the Vedas). He was born as Narendranath and later on became a disciple of the noted saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

He founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission, which worked on many social reform activities. He gained international fame in 1893, when he attended the World Parliament of Religions. He started his address with the words 'Brothers and Sisters of America', which electrified the audience and made him famous all over the USA.

He is said to have been an inspiration of the Indian freedom movement. His book on 'Raja Yoga' is world famous. He died young at the age of 39.

Answer: Macedonia

Born as Agnes Bojaxhiu, an Albanian, in Skopje (Macedonia) in 1910, she gained fame as Mother Teresa. She was a Roman Catholic nun who came to India in 1929. In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity. Her headquarters were in Calcutta and she soon gained fame for her selfless work among lepers, the crippled, homeless and blind.

She received the Nobel prize for peace in 1979. She died in 1997 and has subsequently been beatified and is on the fast-track route to becoming a Saint.

Answer: Athletics

P T Usha is a famous Indian athlete from the state of Kerala in South India. She rose into prominence in the 1982 Asian Games, when she got silver medals in 100m and 200m race. She missed a medal at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 by a hair's breadth in a photo-finish.

She has won 101 International medals in her career. She is popularly known as 'Payyoli Express' (she was born in Payyoli).

Answer: BJP

Atal Behari Vajpayee (born in 1924) is one of the most famous politicians of India. His political life started in the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), a Hindu nationalist organisation. He joined the Jan Sangh party founded by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

He became well known for his oratorical abilities, which impressed the then Prime Minister Nehru. In 1977 after the Emergency, he merged the Jan Sangh party with the Janata Party, which later won the elections. He became the Foreign Minister of India and was in the news for speaking in Hindi at the UN General Assembly.

In 1980, the former Jan Sangh members moved away from the Janata Party and founded the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) with Vajpayee as the first President. He, along with L K Advani was responsible for the meteoric rise of the BJP in the 1990s.

He became Prime Minister for 13 days in 1996 and for a second time from 1998-1999 and after a defeat in a confidence vote in Parliament called for elections. The NDA (National Democratic Alliance) under his leadership won decisively and he was PM from 1999 till 2004.

He was known for his reform programs, nuclear program, improving relations with the US, etc. In 1984, following the defeat of his party and plagued by ill-health he went into semi-retirement. Vajpayee, in addition to his political interests, is a poet having written a number of poems.

Answer: Avadh

Wajid Ali Shah (1822-1887) was the last Nawab (ruler) of the princely state of Avadh. His kingdom was taken over by the British and he was exiled. He was known for his patronage of the arts. Wajid's reign was cinematised by a famous film 'Shatranj Ki Khiladi' made by the noted film maker Satyajit Ray.

Answer: Sholay

Yash Chopra is one of the most famous film-makers of India. His banner 'Yashraj productions' has produced a number of hit films. 'Deewar' (1975), 'Dhoom' (2004) and 'Chak De India' (2007) were produced by his production house. He has himself directed a number of hit films and has received a number of awards. The famous film 'Sholay' was not produced by him, it was made by Sippy Films.

Answer: A film actress

Zeenat Aman is a famous film actress who rose to fame in the 1970s. She won the Miss Asia Pacific title in 1970. She gained fame for her performance in the film 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna' (1972) which was directed by Dev Anand. She acted in a number of hit films including 'Don', 'Heera Panna', Satyam Shivam Sundaram', 'Yaadon Ki Baarat', 'Qurbani', etc.