CHENNAI: A 10-year-old's birthday party might call for a K-pop quiz. An 80th birthday celebration could have guests guessing their way through old Tamil cinema. At a cat café, Harry Potter trivia might be the evening's entertainment. And at a celebrity's anniversary celebration, a quiz could involve a little friendly banter, a few dares and questions that only those in the room might know the answers to.

Quizzing is finding its way into spaces one might not traditionally associate with it. No longer confined to school and college competitions or general knowledge enthusiasts, quizzes are being customised for birthdays, private gatherings, corporate events and even themed social evenings. The subjects are as varied as the occasions, ranging from music and cinema to sport, television and pop culture.

For Chennai-based quizmaster Abhishek, the idea is to bring people together through trivia rather than make them feel that they need to be experts to participate. Having hosted more than 700 quizzes, including around 370 in-person events and 350 online sessions, he has experimented with audiences ranging from intimate groups of 20 to corporate gatherings of 1,500.

His celebrity quizzes are often built around the people participating. "If I'm doing it for a sports team, they want everything but sports. If I'm doing it for somebody from the film industry, they want everything but films," he says, describing how these quizzes move away from the obvious and become more personal.

Abhishek recalls organising quizzes for Vignesh Shivan and Nayanthara during their anniversary celebrations, as well as for Vignesh's birthday. The format was designed to encourage banter, incorporating elements of game shows such as Jeopardy-style rounds, dares and playful punishments for incorrect answers. The aim was to make the experience as entertaining as the questions themselves.

The growing interest in customised quizzes is also reflected in the variety of events he is approached to host. From a football quiz at an eight-year-old's birthday party to a K-pop-themed celebration for a 10-year-old, the format is being adapted to suit different generations and interests. He has also conducted an old Tamil film quiz for an 80th birthday celebration.

Themed quizzes are increasingly becoming entertainment packages in their own right, he says. A Harry Potter quiz at a cat café and quizzes centred on Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth are among the recent formats he has hosted. Sitcoms, cricket, the IPL and music are among the other themes that feature on his calendar.

Corporate gatherings, too, are embracing the format. Instead of relying on conventional presentations and motivational sessions, companies are turning to quizzes to encourage employees to interact. Abhishek believes that participating in a quiz together can help build camaraderie and engagement in a way that a routine presentation may not.

An important part of this shift, he says, is changing the perception that quizzing is only for exceptionally knowledgeable people. Participants often arrive expecting difficult questions, only to discover that they can answer a substantial number of them and learn something from the rest. "I'm trying to break this taboo that quizzing is for everybody and it's not only for nerds," he says.

That effort to widen participation is also something that resonates with veteran quizzer and Quiz Foundation of India (QFI) member Navin Jayakumar, who has been associated with the quizzing scene since 1980. While the formats and audiences have changed considerably, he believes Chennai continues to have a strong appetite for quizzing.

Looking back at the early years, Navin recalls a time when information had to be sought through books, newspapers, periodicals and libraries. The arrival of the internet transformed access to information, while artificial intelligence has made it possible to explore subjects in greater detail. But the challenge today, he points out, is no longer finding information; it is knowing what to read and how to assess it.

"We have moved from information paucity in the 1980s, where we had to go searching for it, to information overload," he says. With AI-generated information also entering the picture, verification has become an important part of preparing questions and researching subjects.

The subjects covered by quizzes have expanded alongside these changes. While general knowledge was once the dominant format, specialist quizzes on sports and business gained popularity over the years, followed by themes spanning music, entertainment, literature and art. Today, cinema, wildlife, history, geography, comics and even Gen Z pop culture can provide material for an entire quiz.

Navin points to the growing popularity of themed quizzes at quiz festivals across the country. The movie quiz, for instance, has become a familiar format, while the broader MELA category — music, entertainment, literature and art — brings together several interests. "You can actually do a quiz on anything, provided it is interesting," he says.

The way people participate has changed, too. The Covid lockdown pushed quizzing online, with platforms such as Discord allowing enthusiasts to participate from different parts of the world. What began as a way to keep the activity going during restrictions has continued as a parallel format. Online quiz leagues now bring together hundreds of participants, including people from countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Romania.

With live quizzing returning after the pandemic, both formats now coexist. In Chennai, Navin has also noticed a stronger presence of club and pub quizzes, which provide an entry point for people who may not be part of established quizzing circles. The annual open quiz, which began as the Landmark Quiz in 1994 and is now known as the Zipho Open Quiz, continues to draw large audiences. The 2026 edition saw around 450 registrations, he says.

Yet, getting new people to participate remains an important concern. Some youngsters assume they will be unable to compete with experienced quizzers, while adults who once participated in college quizzes may find the formal open-quiz format intimidating. QFI's Unusual Suspects Quiz is one initiative aimed at making the experience more welcoming by setting aside the usual challenging formats and encouraging newcomers to take the stage.

Navin also highlights the gender imbalance in quizzing, which he says remains largely male-dominated. In response, QFI introduced the Purple Ribbon Quiz, a women-led initiative featuring questions about women and women's issues, with participation restricted to women. At its previous edition, 126 women participated, with four women quizmasters ranging in age from 13 to 86.

For him, one of the most rewarding aspects of the activity is seeing it pass between generations. He recalls a father approaching him after a quiz with his son and telling him that he had participated in one of Jayakumar's quizzes during his own college years. "It's really nice for someone who's been at this for 30 years to say, okay, I have quizzed two generations now," he says.