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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 01Who directed Slumdog Millionaire?
Danny Boyle
Loveleen Tandan is credited as co-director after writing the Hindi dialogue.
Q 02Who plays Jamal Malik, in his film debut?
Dev Patel
He earned a BAFTA Best Actor nomination for it.
Q 03The film is loosely based on which novel?
Q & A by Vikas Swarup
The novel's hero is a waiter named Ram Mohammad Thomas, not Jamal.
Q 04Which game show is Jamal a contestant on?
Kaun Banega Crorepati
It's the Hindi version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Q 05What is the show's grand prize?
₹2 crore
Jamal has already won ₹1 crore when he is arrested.
Q 06Whose autograph does five-year-old Jamal get after jumping into a cesspit?
Amitabh Bachchan
His brother Salim promptly sells it.
Q 07Which slum do the brothers come from?
Juhu
Filming took place in Juhu's shantytown areas and in Mumbai's megaslum.
Q 08How is the brothers' mother killed?
In the Bombay riots
The brothers escape and shelter from the rain, where they meet Latika.
Q 09Which novel gives Jamal, Salim and Latika their nicknames?
The Three Musketeers
The brothers call themselves Athos and Porthos but can never remember the third name.
Q 10What does Maman do to street children so they earn more as beggars?
Blinds the kids with hot oil
Witnessing it is what makes Salim flee with Jamal and Latika.
Q 11Why does Salim deliberately let go of Latika's hand at the train?
Revenge for a prank the night before
She is recaptured by Maman as a result.
Q 12At which monument do the brothers pretend to be tour guides?
The Taj Mahal
They also sell goods on trains, pickpocket and wash dishes along the way.
Q 13Who shoots Maman dead?
Salim
Rival crime lord Javed is impressed enough to give him a job.
Q 14What job is Jamal doing in 2004?
Q 21What does Salim do after giving Latika his phone and car keys?
Fills a bathtub with money and sits in it
He waits there for Javed to realise what he's done.
Q 22What is the final ₹2 crore question?
The name of the third musketeer
Jamal guesses Aramis and wins.
Q 23Why does Jamal use Phone-A-Friend to call Salim?
It's the only number he knows
Chaiwala at a call centre
That's where he learns Salim is now a lieutenant in Javed's organisation.
Q 15Where does Jamal promise to wait for Latika every day at five o'clock?
Victoria Terminus
Javed's men, led by Salim, capture her when she tries to go.
Q 16Why does Jamal go on the game show at all?
He knows Latika watches it
It's his last attempt to reach her after losing contact.
Q 17What does host Prem Kumar do to sabotage Jamal?
Feeds him a wrong answer to the penultimate question
Jamal answers correctly anyway, and Kumar calls the police.
Q 18Who plays the host, Prem Kumar?
Anil Kapoor
It was the Bollywood star's first international film role.
Q 19Which Bollywood star, the real show's host, turned down the role of Prem Kumar?
Shah Rukh Khan
He didn't want audiences to think the real show was a fraud.
Q 20Who plays the police inspector who eventually believes Jamal?
Irrfan Khan
Boyle said he had an instinctive way of finding the moral centre of a character.
Latika answers instead and tells him she is safe.
Q 24Who plays Latika as an adult?
Freida Pinto
Her modelling agency sent her and six other models to audition.
Q 25Who wrote the screenplay?
Simon Beaufoy
He made three research trips to India to interview street children.
Q 26Which earlier Beaufoy film changed Boyle's mind about reading the script?
The Full Monty
Boyle had hesitated because he had no interest in a film about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Q 27Roughly what fraction of the English dialogue was translated into Hindi?
Nearly a third
Boyle told Warner Independent's president he wanted only 10% and she approved.
Q 28Which 1975 Bollywood film did Boyle call 'absolutely key to Indian cinema' as an influence?
Deewaar
It's a Salim-Javed crime film about a character based on the gangster Haji Mastan.
Q 29The film was the first to take full advantage of which digital camera?
Silicon Imaging SI-2K
Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shot in 2K digital video.
Q 30Who composed the score?
A. R. Rahman
He planned it for two months and wrote it in two weeks.