Slumdog Millionaire Trivia
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50 free Slumdog Millionaire trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Slumdog Millionaire trivia quiz covers Danny Boyle's 2008 sleeper hit from the Juhu slum to the Kodak Theatre. It follows Jamal Malik through the questions on Kaun Banega Crorepati and the memories that answer them: the cesspit and the autograph, Maman and the hot oil, the train Latika could not catch, the fake Taj Mahal tours, Prem Kumar's wrong answer, the police torture, Salim's bathtub of money and the third musketeer. Behind the scenes it covers Simon Beaufoy's adaptation of Vikas Swarup's novel Q & A, why Boyle almost turned the script down, Loveleen Tandan's push to shoot a third of it in Hindi, the Bollywood star who declined to play the host, the digital camera it pioneered, A. R. Rahman's two-week score and Jai Ho, and the studio that nearly sent it straight to video. A final round takes in the 81st Academy Awards sweep, the box-office records in Britain and the mixed reaction in India. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Accepting his Slumdog Millionaire Oscar, Danny Boyle jumped up and down in the spirit of which character?
Tigger
Tigger: Boyle told the audience he had sworn to his children years earlier that, if this miracle ever happened, he would take the award in the manner of Winnie-the-Pooh's bouncing tiger.
Q 02Who made his feature film debut as Jamal Malik in Slumdog Millionaire?
Dev Patel
Dev Patel had only ever tried out for one part before; he needed five auditions to land this one, and it brought him a BAFTA nomination for best actor.
Q 03Slumdog Millionaire is loosely based on which novel?
Q & A by Vikas Swarup
Q & A by Vikas Swarup has several separate storylines; the screenplay merged them into a single narrative framed around how Jamal comes to know each answer.
Q 04The quiz Jamal plays in Slumdog Millionaire is based on which real Indian game show?
Kaun Banega Crorepati
Kaun Banega Crorepati is India's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, on air since 2000; on screen, though, the host welcomes Jamal to the show under its English name.
Q 05How many rupees can Jamal win in Slumdog Millionaire?
20 million
20 million rupees, or two crore, is the top prize; Jamal has already banked ten million when the host, convinced he must be cheating, has him arrested between episodes.
Q 06Which film star's autograph does young Jamal win by jumping into a cesspit in Slumdog Millionaire?
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan signs for a boy coated in sewage; his brother soon sells the autograph, but the memory later hands Jamal the answer to his very first quiz question.
Q 07Which Mumbai beach suburb is the brothers' home in Slumdog Millionaire?
Juhu
Juhu's shantytown sits beside the suburb's small airport: in the first childhood scene the boys play cricket on its runway until they are chased off.
Q 08How is the mother of Jamal and Salim killed in Slumdog Millionaire?
In the Bombay riots
In the Bombay riots, a Hindu mob attacking Muslims storms the slum and kills her; the orphaned brothers flee and, sheltering from the rain, take in a girl called Latika.
Q 09How does Slumdog Millionaire end, over its closing credits?
A dance number
A dance number closes the film: its choreographer, Longinus Fernandes, was left off the credits by mistake, so the director apologised to him by name from the Oscar stage.
Q 10What does Maman do to street children in Slumdog Millionaire so they earn more as beggars?
Blinds the kids with hot oil
Blinds the kids with hot oil, because blind singers earn double; witnessing it is what makes Salim flee with Jamal and Latika.
Q 11Why does Slumdog Millionaire's Salim let go of Latika's hand at the train?
Revenge for a prank the night before
Revenge for a prank the night before: Latika had rubbed crushed chillies on him as he slept and he told her she was dead; left behind on the tracks, she is recaptured by Maman.
Q 12At which monument do Jamal and Salim pose as tour guides in Slumdog Millionaire?
The Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal: on first seeing it Jamal takes it for some hotel; soon the boys are posing as guides for its visitors and stealing from them.
Q 13Danny Boyle's teenage daughter spotted the future star of Slumdog Millionaire in which British teen drama?
Skins
Q 21What does Slumdog Millionaire's Salim do after giving Latika his car keys?
Fills a bathtub with money and sits in it
Fills a bathtub with money and sits in it: he waits there with a loaded gun for Javed to learn that he let Latika go, and kills the gangster before he is shot himself.
Q 22What does Jamal's final question ask for in Slumdog Millionaire?
The name of the third musketeer
The name of the third musketeer: as boys the brothers called themselves Athos and Porthos but never learned the third, so Jamal can only guess Aramis, and he is right.
Q 23Why does Jamal phone Salim as his lifeline in Slumdog Millionaire?
Skins: Boyle had considered hundreds of actors and found Bollywood's young leads too strong and handsome, until his 17-year-old daughter told him to watch the show's skinny newcomer.
Q 14What job is Jamal doing when he goes on the quiz show in Slumdog Millionaire?
Chaiwala at a call centre
Chaiwala at a call centre: he fetches tea for operators who are coached to pass as British, which is how he later knows which city has a Cambridge Circus.
Q 15Where does Jamal promise to wait for Latika at five o'clock every day in Slumdog Millionaire?
Victoria Terminus
Victoria Terminus is where he waits each day; when Latika finally comes, Javed's men, led by Salim, seize her before she reaches him.
Q 16Why does Jamal go on the quiz show in Slumdog Millionaire?
He knows Latika watches it
He knows Latika watches it: with no other way to reach her after she is taken from him, he gets himself onto the show in the hope that she will see him.
Q 17How does Slumdog Millionaire's quiz host try to sabotage Jamal?
Feeds him a wrong answer to the penultimate question
Feeds him a wrong answer to the penultimate question: in the washroom the host traces a letter on the steamed-up mirror, but Jamal distrusts the tip and picks a different answer.
Q 18Which Bollywood star plays quiz host Prem Kumar in Slumdog Millionaire?
Anil Kapoor
Anil Kapoor's host cannot believe a boy from the slums knows the answers, so before the final question he has the police take his own contestant away.
Q 19Which Bollywood star, a past host of the real show, turned down Slumdog Millionaire's quiz-host role?
Shah Rukh Khan
Shah Rukh Khan said he passed because the host in the film is a bit of a cheat, and viewers might have thought he had behaved the same way on the real programme.
Q 20Who plays the police inspector who comes to believe Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire?
Irrfan Khan
Irrfan Khan's inspector begins by having Jamal tortured as a cheat, then hears out the story behind each answer and sends him back to the show for the final question.
It's the only number he knows
It's the only number he knows, he tells the host as it rings; the phone is by then with Latika, who picks up just in time, cannot help with the answer, but tells him she is safe.
Q 24Who plays the adult Latika in Slumdog Millionaire?
Freida Pinto
Freida Pinto had never acted in a feature film before, yet her first role brought her a BAFTA nomination for best supporting actress.
Q 25Who wrote the screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire?
Simon Beaufoy
Simon Beaufoy made three research trips to India to talk to street children, and came away wanting the script to show the slums' fun, laughter and sense of community.
Q 26Which earlier film by Slumdog Millionaire's screenwriter persuaded a reluctant Danny Boyle to read the script?
The Full Monty
The Full Monty was one of Boyle's favourite British films, and its writer's name was the only reason he opened a script about a quiz show he had no wish to film.
Q 27Nearly a third of Slumdog Millionaire's dialogue was translated from English into which language?
Hindi
Hindi: the director thought the street children's English lines sounded fake, so he switched languages, telling his American backers the change would affect about 10% of the script.
Q 28Slumdog Millionaire's director called which Bollywood film, about brothers on opposite sides of the law, 'absolutely key to Indian cinema'?
Deewaar
Deewaar pits a policeman against his gangster brother; Slumdog Millionaire borrows the pattern, with one brother chasing money while the other stays honest.
Q 29Slumdog Millionaire became the first film shot mainly in which format to win the Oscar for cinematography?
Digital
Digital video: finding that bulky 35mm cameras kept the slums at a distance, the director used digital units the size of a wine bottle.
Q 30Who composed the score for Slumdog Millionaire?
A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman says he planned the score for two months and finished it in two weeks, where the Indian film musicals he usually writes take him about six months.