Diwali truth or dare: 60 questions and dares for family and friends

Below are 60 Diwali truth or dare cards for family, friends, couples and the nosy aunty, sorted from easy truths to big dares. After them come the house rules we use for points, skips and whose turn it is. The truths are about the party itself, like who ate the sweets meant for guests, and the dares need only what’s already in the room, such as a spoon, a dupatta or the soan papdi box.

The cards come from Chakri, the free Diwali party game we made at 9io. It runs in the phone’s browser at chakri.9io.ai and deals the cards on one phone in the middle of the room. We wrote all 176 of its truth or dare cards, in English and Hinglish, so we can quote the best of them here.

Each list below is one of the game’s four decks, split by level. In the game a card can name another player. Here that player becomes “someone else in the room”, “another player” or “your partner”.

The four levels and what they score

Classic truth or dare offers two choices. Chakri splits each of them in two and names the four levels after Diwali firecrackers, or patakhas. The player whose turn it is picks a patakha first and only then sees the card. Bigger patakhas score more points.

A juicy truth scores the same as a dare, so a player who would rather talk than perform can keep up by answering harder questions. As of 29 October 2026 the game has 176 cards, with 48 each in the Family and Friends decks and 40 each in Couple and Aunty Special. Every deck has the same number of cards at each level.

Truth or dare questions for family, safe in front of Dadi

The Family deck’s label in the game is “Safe in front of Dadi”. Its cards are about sweets, cleaning, outfits and the family photo, so it works with grandparents and children at the same table.

Easy truths (Sparkler, 1 point)

• Team kaju katli or team soan papdi? Defend your team in one sentence.
• Your Diwali lights: simple and classy, or so bright the neighbours need sunglasses?
• Who in the family takes the longest to get ready on Diwali?
• How many sweets do you really eat on Diwali day? The real number, please.

Juicy truths (Anaar, 2 points)

• Have you ever secretly eaten the sweets that were meant for guests?
• Which corner did you only pretend to clean during Diwali cleaning?
• Who in this family is the worst at keeping a secret?
• Have you ever praised a relative’s cooking that you secretly didn’t like?

Dares (Rocket, 2 points)

• Be a sutli bomb that turns out to be a dud: fizz dramatically for 10 seconds, then… nothing.
• Balance a laddoo (or any sweet) on a spoon and walk once around the table without dropping it.
• Do the classic party dance for 15 seconds: one hand screws in an imaginary bulb, the other pats an imaginary dog.
• Act out a Diwali video call with Nani where the screen keeps freezing mid-sentence.

Big dares (Sutli bomb, 3 points)

• Do a Bollywood song scene with a dupatta flowing in the wind. Someone else plays the wind.
• Be a TV shopping host selling the leftover Diwali sweets for 30 seconds. “Limited stock, hurry!”
• Act out, in slow motion, the moment a foot almost lands on the rangoli.
• Freeze in your best Diwali selfie pose. Everyone gets 30 seconds to make you laugh, without touching.

Truths and funny dares for a Diwali party with friends

The Friends deck is labelled “No mercy”. Its truths go as far as first crushes and messages sent to the wrong group chat, and its dares are short performances, from a Bollywood villain monologue to a roast of the soan papdi box. Several pull in a second player, whom the game picks at random.

Easy truths (Sparkler, 1 point)

• What’s your go-to excuse for leaving a Diwali party early?
• Rate your dancing at the last Diwali party, from 1 to “should have gone viral”.
• How many unread messages are sitting in your family group chat right now?
• Who here gives the best Diwali gifts, and who’s the soan papdi giver?

Juicy truths (Anaar, 2 points)

• Who was your first crush, and did they ever find out?
• Have you ever sent a message meant for friends to the family group chat? How bad was the damage?
• Have you ever scrolled someone’s profile so deep you accidentally liked an ancient photo?
• Who in this room do you secretly think is the worst dancer?

Dares (Rocket, 2 points)

• Give someone else in the room an over-the-top Bollywood compliment, with background music you hum yourself.
• Make up a “Good morning, Happy Diwali” forward and perform it out loud, every emoji included.
• Roast the soan papdi box for 20 seconds. Show no mercy.
• Explain Diwali to an imaginary coworker in 20 seconds without saying “lights” or “sweets”.

Big dares (Sutli bomb, 3 points)

• Do the naagin dance for 20 seconds while someone else plays the snake-charmer tune with their voice.
• Recreate the slow-motion Bollywood train scene with another player: reach out your hand, and they decide whether to take it.
• Act out the soan papdi box’s journey through five different homes, as a 45-second movie.
• Deliver a dramatic Bollywood villain monologue to the last piece of kaju katli.

Truth or dare for couples, just the two of you

The Couple deck is “A little spicy, just the two of you”. The game only deals it when exactly two people are playing, so whenever a card names someone else, it’s your partner. The cards are flirty and never explicit, and every dare that involves touching, such as feeding your partner a sweet or giving them a 10-second hug, says “if they’re up for it”.

Easy truths (Sparkler, 1 point)

• If your partner were a Diwali sweet, which one would they be, and why?
• Who takes longer to get ready for a Diwali party: you or your partner? Be honest.
• Rate your partner’s Diwali party dancing out of 10. Honestly… ish.

Juicy truths (Anaar, 2 points)

• When did you first realise you had feelings for your partner?
• What’s one thing your partner does that you love but have never told them?
• What did you almost say on your first date or first meeting, but didn’t?

Dares (Rocket, 2 points)

• Feed your partner a piece of mithai like it’s a Bollywood wedding scene, if they’re up for it.
• Use a sweets box as a ring box and ask your partner on a Diwali date, in the filmiest way possible.
• Give your partner a nickname based on a Diwali sweet, and use only that for the rest of the game.

Big dares (Sutli bomb, 3 points)

• Make up a four-line Diwali shayari (a little poem) for your partner on the spot, and recite it with feeling.
• Pitch your partner your perfect Diwali date in 45 seconds, like an over-excited wedding planner.
• Hold a 45-second press conference: your partner is the reporter asking about your love story, and you answer everything.

Diwali aunty questions, with the phone as the aunty

In the Aunty Special deck, “Nosy relatives, live”, the phone plays the nosy aunty or uncle and the player answers honestly. The truths are the questions relatives really do ask at family functions, and the dares turn the player into the aunty.

Easy truths (Sparkler, 1 point)

• Beta, when are you getting married? Just give us the year, we’ll book the caterer.
• Beta, what’s your salary? Answer only in boxes of kaju katli per month.
• Beta, Sharma ji’s son became a doctor. Why didn’t you? Your best excuse, please.

Juicy truths (Anaar, 2 points)

• Beta, describe your ideal rishta (match) in three words. We already have a list ready.
• Beta, the soan papdi box we gave you last Diwali: what did you do with it? Truth!
• Beta, which question are you dreading most at this Diwali party? We promise not to ask it. Maybe.

Dares (Rocket, 2 points)

• Greet everyone in the room like relatives at a wedding: “Arre, recognise me?” plus an air cheek-pinch.
• Inspect the room like an aunty at a Diwali party: finger-check for dust, peek in the sweets box, comment on everything.
• Give another player directions to your home the way an uncle does: landmarks only, no addresses.

Big dares (Sutli bomb, 3 points)

• In 45 seconds, act out an aunty’s phone call: start with “Hello? Can you hear me?”, never get to the point, end with “bye-bye-bye-bye”.
• In 30 seconds, teach everyone the aunty art of “No no, I’m full… okay, just a little” while pushing your plate forward.
• As the most senior uncle at the party, give a 45-second Diwali speech that refuses to end.

The same cards in Hinglish

Chakri is in English first, with a language switch at the top of the screen for Hinglish. That’s Hindi written in the Latin alphabet, the way it’s often typed in family group chats. Every card has both versions, and these are five of the cards above with the switch on.

The game’s own words switch too. The Sparkler becomes a Phuljhadi, an easy truth is a halka sach and a juicy truth a teekha sach, and the “Done!” button under a card says “Ho gaya!” instead.

Hindi verbs often change with the gender of the person they’re about. “Will you do it?” is karoge to a man and karogi to a woman. A card can’t know who the chakri will land on, so every Hinglish line uses forms that fit anyone. Commands use karo, and past tenses agree with the object, as khaayi agrees with mithai in the guests’ sweets card. The game’s tests fail if a Hinglish line uses one of the common gendered forms.

House rules for Diwali truth or dare

Paying to get out of a question is an old rule. A variant of truth or dare called questions and commands is recorded as early as 1712¹. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) describes it as a Christmas game in which a player who refused to answer, or failed to satisfy the questioner, paid a forfeit². In Chakri the forfeit is a laddoo. These are its rules, and they work just as well with the cards on this page and the scores on paper.

• Score by level. An easy truth is worth 1 point, a juicy truth 2, a dare 2 and a big dare 3. The player chooses the level before seeing the card.
• Three laddoos each. Skipping a card costs one laddoo and scores nothing, and the turn still counts. A player with no laddoos left has to do the card. The game puts it as “No laddoos left. You have to do it!”
• Pick fairly. Never pick the same player twice running, and favour whoever has had the fewest turns. In Chakri, a player one turn ahead of the least-picked player is a third as likely to be chosen, and a player two turns ahead a fifth as likely. With two players, that means taking turns.
• Couple cards for two. With three or more players the game locks the Couple deck, so a couple card can’t name somebody’s cousin as your partner.
• No repeats. A card doesn’t come back until every card of its level has been dealt.
• Stop when the night does. There’s no fixed number of rounds. When someone calls time, the highest score is the Patakha of the night. A tie goes to whoever has more laddoos left, then to whoever skipped fewer cards.

Safety rules every card follows

At a Diwali party the diyas are lit and the firecrackers are close by, so Chakri keeps its dares well away from them. No dare involves fire, firecrackers, diyas, drink or smoke, and none sends anyone outside or asks them to message someone who isn’t in the room. The firecrackers in the deck are ones you act out, like the dud sutli bomb that fizzes for 10 seconds and then does nothing.

Dares that would mean touching someone either ask first or keep their distance. The Couple deck’s touching dares say “if they’re up for it”, and in the Friends deck’s train scene the other player decides whether to take your hand. The aunty’s cheek-pinch is done in the air, and in the Family deck’s selfie dare everyone tries to make you laugh “without touching”.

The game’s tests check the dares as well. They fail if the English text of any dare uses a word for fire, drink, smoke, blades or kissing.

Playing it on one phone with Chakri

As of 29 October 2026, Chakri is free and runs in the phone’s browser, with no app to install and no sign-up. It went live that day, ten days before Lakshmi Puja on Sunday 8 November³. Nothing leaves the phone. Your settings and the last players’ names stay in that browser’s local storage.

A game takes 2 to 12 players. Type in the names, choose the decks and put the phone in the middle. Family and Aunty Special are switched on the first time you open it.

Swipe the chakri, or tap Spin. The wheel has everyone’s names round the rim and a chakri spinning in the middle, and it sprays sparks until it stops on someone. The game has already picked that player, by the fair-picking rule above, before the wheel starts to move. They choose a patakha, read the card out and tap Done, or pay a laddoo to skip.

When the night is done, someone taps End game. Chakri names the Patakha of the night and shows the scores, with up to three awards. Rocket of the night goes to the player with the most dares, and Laddoo lover to the one who skipped most. Laddoo hoarder goes to the only player who never skipped, if they had at least two turns. Each award needs one clear winner, or nobody gets it. The Share the night button makes a 1080 × 1920 card, sized for a story, to share, send on WhatsApp or save.

Chakri’s other mode, Jodi Check, is a quiz for two on how well you know each other. Our post on Diwali party games has other games for the night.

Before the first spin: a checklist for the host

Pick decks for the people in the room.

Then get the room ready.

• Add every player before the first spin. Chakri takes 2 to 12.
• Hand out three laddoos each, real ones or ticks on paper.
• Put a spoon, a cushion, a dupatta and the sweets box within reach. Several dares need them.
• Agree that anyone can turn down a dare that involves them, at no cost to the player who drew it.
• Keep lit diyas and the night’s firecrackers away from where people act out dares.
• Decide when the game ends, for example when dinner is served, so nobody argues over End game.

Frequently asked questions