Here's "Dil Se" - The Special Music Quiz, to celebrate the birthday of India's legendary musician, "The Mozart of Madras" - AR Rahman! Attempt this short fun trivia quiz to reminisce about AR Rahman's music!

1. AR RAHMAN BIRTHDAY SPECIAL MUSIC QUIZ
Researched & Conducted by: Aravind Anil

2. The Deal
Theme
AR Rahman Birthday Special
Quiz
# Questions
12 Qs → 12 points
Approx Time
≈10-15 minutes

3. Before you take the quiz…
● All Questions contain texts as well as images.
➢ The questions are wordy and trivial. Look out for cryptic clues/ easter eggs in the text.
➢ The images contain giveaway clues. Take a good look at them.
➢ In some questions, texts would contain blanks, which would be the answer to the Q.
➢ The blank lengths are indicative of the length of words throughout the quiz.
● FORMAT: The quiz consists of 1 round with 12 Questions.
★ Question Slide → followed by Safety Slide → Followed by Answer Slide (for each Qs)
● STYLE: Questions are trivial in nature, and most of them can be cracked even without a deep
factual knowledge about the movies/songs.
● Treat this quiz like a competitive quiz.
Take a sheet of paper & pen, Run the entire quiz at once, and score yourselves.
Having said that, skullduggery is prohibited!
Put your thinking caps on, ignite the grey cells. Good luck in scoring a perfect 12/12!

4. ● AR Rahman’s debut movie album is featured in Time Magazine’s
“10 Best Soundtracks of all time,” making it the solitary Indian
entry to the list, apart from being the only debut album to
feature in this list. This movie in fact has the Quiz Master’s
namesake playing the lead role.
● Multiple songs from this album were famously used in a 2023
context.
● Which late-20th Century movie album?
● In what 2023 context was it used?
Teaser Q.
Chai Pe Quiz

6. “Roja”
“Ranvijay’s Entry Medley” in Animal
ANS
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7. ● This song sequence, shot entirely in a UNESCO World Heritage Site,
was shot in a manner as mentioned:
● While everyone else involved was tied down to the surface of a moving
entity, the lead actor alone was set free, which enabled him to do the
jumps, unlike the others. There were many dangerous obstacles on the
way, but there were no loudspeakers or similar setups to communicate.
The safety measures taken were rudimentary - choreographer Farah
Khan devised a system where a white cloth would be waived whenever
they approach danger, which would act as a signal to halt the dance and
crouch down.
● Which song?
1.
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9. Chaiyya Chaiyya (Dil Se)
The UNESCO World Heritage Site being the Nilgiri Mountain Railways (Ooty)
ANS
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10. ● This brand, launched in 2010, has its name derived from the
Greek word for “Spirit”/ “Character”/ “Ideals,” and had the
tagline “World’s first, India’s first, My first.”
● AR Rahman, who was roped in as its brand ambassador,
created its theme song for its ad campaigns and featured in
its videos as well.
● Which brand?
2.
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12. Toyota Etios
ANS
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13. ● This is a TV commercial for the mineral water brand “Volvic”,
released in 2000, and featured the gentleman “X”.
● The ad features an instrumental theme song, originally
composed by AR Rahman for a multi-lingual Indian movie in
the mid-1990s.
● This chilling soundtrack, considered AR Rahman’s magnum
opus, was included in The Guardian’s “1000 Albums to hear
before you die” global list and captures the the pain and
agony of a sombre event, on which the movie is based.
● Which track?
● Also, identify the gentleman “X”?
3.
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14. Image Slide
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16. Bombay Theme
X - Zinedine Zidane
ANS
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17. ● “Where have you been my blue-eyed son” is a song from the
1989 American anti-war film ‘Born on the Fourth of July.
● AR Rahman was inspired by the abstract nature of this song,
which is about the calling of a mother and composed
arguably one of the most heart-wrenching songs in
Bollywood to depict the mother-son relation, where the son
is communicating with his mom, through a game of hide and
seek.
● This was also his first-ever duet with Lata Mangeshkar.
● Which song?
4.
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19. Lukka Chuppi (Rang De Basanti)
ANS
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20. ● AR Rahman won all of his first five Filmfare nominations for Best Music
Director since his debut movie Rangeela, until he lost in 2005 when he
ended as a runner-up.
● He was nominated for the movie X, which was the #1 best-rated movie
of that year. Its title song was sung by AR Rahman himself.
● Unlucky for him, the veteran composer Anu Malik had the last laugh. He
was nominated for the movie Y, another SRK-starrer masala film,
which eventually went on to become the second-highest-grosser of
that year. Its title song was sung by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghosal and
choreographed by the director of the movie herself.
● Identify both movies?
Cryptic Clue: Anu Malik must have been like “I’m here right?, I’ll take the award this year.” (metaphorically :P)
5.
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22. X - Swades
Y -Main Hoon Na
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23. ● The audio launch of this 2000s AR Rahman movie had its lead actors
appear with a bird belonging to the species “Columba” in their hands,
very appropriately.
● The official trailer of this movie also featured the lead actor watching
the lead actress dancing with this creature on her head.
● Which movie?
6.
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25. Delhi - 6
ANS
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26. ● This song from a 2000 Tamil movie Kandukondain Kandukondain (“I have found it”),
picturized on Aishwarya Rai, was entirely shot in a single location, “X”.
● The picturesque location, famous for its waterfall and hiking spots, coincidentally
shares its name with an Indian icon from a different field, who emerged into popular
consciousness in only about 4 years after the release of this film.
● This film, featuring the ensemble cast of “Thala” Ajith Kumar, Mammootty,
Aishwarya Rai, Tabu, et al, with the plot revolving around a family of four women, a
single mother and her three daughters, who are forced to make their way in a
patriarchal world, is loosely based on an early 19th C English Novel “Y”, the debut of
its author “Z.”
● Identify the variables: X (the location/ icon), Y (the novel) & Z (the author)?
7.
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27. Image Slide
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29. X - Dhoni
Y - Sense & Sensibility
Z- Jane Austen
ANS
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30. ● "Tough Love" ft. Agnes, Vargas & Lagola is a posthumous single by X,
released in 2019.
● The artist X spent time studying the music of North-West India, which
inspired the sampled sitar elements from the AR Rahman song” Y”. This
song (Y), rendered by Shreya Ghoshal, is from a 2013 Bollywood movie
which also was the Bollywood debut of a National Award-winning
South Indian actor.
● Identify the artist X?
● Also, Identify the AR Rahman song?
8.
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32. X - Avicii
Y - Banarasiya (Raanjhanaa)
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33. ● The lyric of this controversial AR Rahman-Irshad Kamil song was taken
from the slogan of the Punjab University students’ revolution in the
early 1990s when the latter was a student there. It roughly translated
to “Give me what’s mine, right here and right now.”
● The picturization of this song, major parts of which were shot at the
Norbulingka monastery in Dharamsala, also invited controversy when
the Censor Board objected to the glimpse of the motifs of a revolution
which the Censor Board of India objected. The song was eventually
released after blurring out the questionable elements.
● Which song?
● Also, identify the movement?
9.
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35. Sadda Haq (Rockstar)
Free Tibet movement
ANS
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36. ● This music album by AR Rahman, released on the occasion of the
Golden Jubilee of India’s independence, is the largest-selling non-
film album of Sony Music India to date.
● The title track of this album holds the Guinness World Record for
being the song performed in most languages.
● Another song in this album, titled “Gurus of Peace”, was sung by a
legendary singer from another country in his only collaboration
with AR Rahman. He, however, died on 16th August that year, soon
after its release.
● Which album? Also, Identify the singer (full name required)?
10.
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38. Vande Mataram
Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
ANS
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39. ● This director visualized this song drawing parallels to the Olympic
opening ceremony, where people from across the places come in large
numbers and dance in front of a gathering. With about 500 dancers and
2000 extras from across North India, it was one of the biggest
choreographies for a Bollywood movie and also one of the most
expensive songs ever made, spending 2.5 crore Rupees.
● This song won its choreographer, Chinni Prakash, the “National Award
for the Best Choreographer” in 2008 for the extravagant treatment of
celebrations on a magnificent scale, also lauding the fact that every
aspect of the song - the dance steps, clothes, postures, etc were apt for
a movie based 3-4 centuries ago.
● Which song?
11.
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41. Azeem-O-Shaan Shahenshah (Jodha Akbar)
ANS
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42. Fin.