Indian Cinema
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50 free Indian Cinema trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
India has one of the largest film industries on earth, working in more than a dozen languages for over a century. Its cinema has given the world three-hour musicals, record-breaking theatrical runs, stars with enormous fan followings and a handful of Oscar winners. This quiz covers the whole story: the silent-era pioneers and the famous firsts (first feature, first talkie, first colour film, first Oscar), the Hindi blockbusters everyone can hum, the superstars of Mumbai and the south, playback singers and composers, and the prizes, studios and nicknames that hold the industry together. It suits anyone who grew up on Indian movies, quiz-night hosts who need a ready round, and film fans curious about a cinema far bigger than any one language. The opening questions are friendly, the deep cuts come later, and every answer has a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Hindi film villain played the cult priest Mola Ram in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?
Amrish Puri
Amrish Puri shaved his head for the part and kept it shaved afterwards. Hindi film fans know him best as Mogambo, the villain of the 1987 hit Mr. India.
Q 02Which Hindi 'curry western' sends two small-time crooks after the bandit Gabbar Singh?
Sholay
Sholay ran for more than five years at Mumbai's Minerva theatre. Its villain was modelled on a real dacoit of the same name who menaced villages around Gwalior in the 1950s.
Q 03Which Hindi romance has played at Mumbai's Maratha Mandir cinema for more than 1,000 weeks?
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge opened in October 1995 and reached its 1,000th week of daily shows in December 2014. Its European scenes were filmed around Gstaad and Saanen in Switzerland.
Q 04Which composer, nicknamed the Mozart of Madras, won two Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire?
A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman took both Best Original Score and Best Original Song at the 2009 ceremony. Born Dileep Kumar, he changed his name around the time his family converted to Islam in 1989.
Q 05Which dance number from the Telugu epic RRR was the first song from an Indian film to win an Oscar?
Naatu Naatu
Naatu Naatu was shot in August 2021 at the Mariinskyi Palace in Ukraine. It was also the first Indian song to win the Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
Q 06Which Oscar-nominated Hindi film has villagers bet their taxes on a cricket match with the British?
Lagaan
Lagaan, set in 1893, was the third Indian film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Its title is the Hindi word for the land tax the drought-hit farmers cannot pay.
Q 07Which Hindi wrestling drama about the Phogat sisters earned more than $200 million in China alone?
Dangal
Dangal follows Mahavir Singh Phogat as he trains his daughters Geeta and Babita to be world-class wrestlers. It also won the first Best Asian Film prize at Australia's AACTA Awards.
Q 08Which Indian city has Ramoji Film City, listed by Guinness as the world's largest studio complex?
Hyderabad
Hyderabad's Ramoji Film City opened in 1996 and earned its Guinness World Records title in 2005. It was conceived by media proprietor and film producer Ramoji Rao.
Q 09Which host of Kaun Banega Crorepati once failed an audition to read the news on All India Radio?
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan applied to be a newsreader in Delhi in the late 1960s. A few years later Zanjeer (1973) gave him the 'angry young man' persona that made him a superstar.
Q 10Which Tamil superstar worked as a bus conductor in Bangalore before he began acting in films?
Rajinikanth
Rajinikanth was born Shivaji Rao Gaikwad to a Marathi family in Bangalore. Before joining the city's transport service he had also worked as a coolie.
Q 11Which 1913 silent film, with men in the female roles, is often called the first Indian feature?
Raja Harishchandra
Raja Harishchandra came about after its director watched The Life of Christ in a Bombay theatre in 1911. It premiered at the city's Olympia Theatre in April 1913.
Q 12Which 1931 film directed by Ardeshir Irani is widely regarded as the first sound film made in India?
Alam Ara
Alam Ara is now a lost film, with no print known to survive, only stills and posters. Irani was inspired to make it after seeing the American part-talkie Show Boat.
Q 13Which pioneer, called the father of Indian cinema, gives his name to the country's top film award?
Dadasaheb Phalke
Q 21Which actor, dubbed the Baadshah of Bollywood, began his career in the 1989 television serial Fauji?
Shah Rukh Khan
Shah Rukh Khan made his Hindi film debut three years later in the musical romance Deewana. The 1992 hit won him a prize for best male debut.
Q 22Which playback singer, honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 2001, was known as the Queen of Melody?
Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar recorded songs in more than thirty-six Indian languages. In 1974 she became the first Indian playback singer to perform at London's Royal Albert Hall.
Q 23Which actor-director, inspired by Chaplin's Tramp, became a star in the Soviet Union with Awaara?
Raj Kapoor
Dadasaheb Phalke ran a printing press before he turned to film. The government award named after him was first presented in 1969.
Q 14Which 1957 Hindi epic was the first Indian film nominated for an Oscar, losing by a single vote?
Mother India
Mother India lost the 1958 foreign-language award to Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria. It was also the very first film the country submitted for the category.
Q 15Which costume designer became the first Indian to win an Oscar, for Richard Attenborough's Gandhi?
Bhanu Athaiya
Bhanu Athaiya shared the 1983 costume design prize with John Mollo. In 2012 she returned the trophy to the Academy.
Q 16Whose Cinématographe had its first screening in India at Bombay's Watson's Hotel in 1896?
Lumière brothers
The Lumière brothers' moving pictures reached Bombay in the same year they became a worldwide sensation. The hotel's other famous guests included Mark Twain, who wrote about the crows outside his balcony.
Q 17Which star, called the First Lady of Indian cinema, was the first winner of India's top film honour?
Devika Rani
Devika Rani received the honour in 1969. Her grandmother was a sister of the Nobel-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Q 18Which Guru Dutt drama about a film director was the first Indian film made in CinemaScope?
Kaagaz Ke Phool
Kaagaz Ke Phool flopped so badly that it was the last film Guru Dutt officially directed. It was rediscovered as a cult classic in the 1980s.
Q 19Which Chetan Anand film shared the top prize at the very first Cannes Film Festival in 1946?
Neecha Nagar
Neecha Nagar shared the Grand Prix with ten other films, among them Brief Encounter and Rome, Open City. Its title translates as Lowly City.
Q 20Which Bengali director of the Apu Trilogy received an honorary Oscar just weeks before his death?
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was presented with the award by Audrey Hepburn over a video link, 24 days before he died. He was the first Indian to receive an honorary Oscar.
Raj Kapoor's Awaara drew about 100 million admissions in the Soviet Union. He returned to the Chaplin-style tramp in Shree 420 and Mera Naam Joker.
Q 24Which winner of Miss World 1994 became the first Indian actress on the Cannes Film Festival jury?
Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai joined the Cannes jury in 2003. She had planned to become an architect before modelling took over.
Q 25Which Hindi film star, born in Copenhagen, played national-level badminton as a teenager?
Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone is the daughter of badminton player Prakash Padukone and was raised in Bangalore. Her first Hindi release was the romance Om Shanti Om in 2007.
Q 26Which Hindi film director, famed for Alpine romances, was made Ambassador of Interlaken in 2011?
Yash Chopra
Yash Chopra filmed so often in the Alps that the Swiss government honoured him for helping to rediscover Switzerland. Bond actress Ursula Andress presented the award.
Q 27Which musician, later linked with Beatle George Harrison, scored the Bengali film Pather Panchali?
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar had seen only about half the film in a rough cut before he composed its background score. He built the music on classical ragas, played mostly on the sitar.
Q 28Which Tamil screen idol served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death?
M. G. Ramachandran
M. G. Ramachandran led his AIADMK party to victory in the 1977 state election. Apart from a four-month break in 1980, he stayed in office until he died in 1987.
Q 29Which Tamil director's gangster epic Nayakan made Time magazine's list of the 100 greatest films?
Mani Ratnam
Mani Ratnam based the film loosely on the Bombay underworld don Varadarajan Mudaliar. He also directed Roja, Bombay and Dil Se.
Q 30Which actress, called Indian cinema's first female superstar, began acting as a small child in Tamil films?
Sridevi
Sridevi first appeared in the 1967 Tamil film Kandhan Karunai, playing the child god Murugan. Fifty years later the crime thriller Mom was billed as her 300th film.