Dumb Charades

One person acts. Nobody speaks. The room shouts film names until somebody gets it. Dumb Charades is the game that turns every Indian family gathering into a stage, and it has been doing it for generations.

GroupGames.ai keeps everything you love about it and removes the arguments. The app picks the title and shows it only to the actor, runs the clock, and gives the room a buzzer so everyone knows who got it first.

Create a crew and play

At a glance

Players	4 to 16, split into two teams
Turn	60 seconds of acting, 10 seconds to answer after a buzz
Game length	1 to 5 turns per player (3 by default)
Decks	Bollywood, Hollywood, 90s Bollywood, Kids, and Spicy for adults
You need	One phone each. Kids can share a grown up’s phone

How to play

Split into two teams. Teams take turns to act.
The actor sees a film title that nobody else can see.
The actor has 60 seconds to act it out without speaking, mouthing words or pointing at objects that spell the answer.
Only the actor’s own teammates guess. When someone thinks they know it, they buzz and say it out loud.
If they are right, the team scores. If they are wrong, the clock keeps running and the rest of the team can keep guessing.
After all the turns, the team with the most points wins.

The classic hand signs

Every table has its own habits, but these are the signs most people know:

It’s a film: crank an old movie camera beside your head.
Language: thumb up for English, thumb down for Hindi, thumb sideways for a regional film.
Number of words: hold up that many fingers. Then hold up one finger again to say which word you are acting.
Syllables: lay fingers on your forearm to show how many syllables a word has.
Sounds like: tug your earlobe, then act a word that rhymes.
Small word: pinch thumb and finger close together for words like “the”, “a” or “ka”.
Whole title: sweep your arms in a big circle to act the entire title at once.
You got it: touch your nose and point at the person who guessed right.

How it works in GroupGames.ai

Game picker with deck choices and teams A and B — Pick a deck and set the teams. The app balances teams by seat and keeps kids on their parent’s team. Tap a player to move them.

Private actor screen showing the film title, deck, kind and word count — The actor’s phone shows the title on a dark private screen with the deck, the word count and a difficulty rating. Nobody else’s phone gets the title. Tap Ready to start the clock.

Teammates get a big buzz button. The first buzz locks everyone else out and gives that player 10 seconds to say the answer.

Actor screen with Correct and Wrong buttons naming the buzzer — The actor taps Correct or Wrong. Correct scores the round. Wrong puts that player out for the rest of the turn and reopens the buzzer for their teammates.

Scoring

Correct guess: the team gets 10 points and the guesser gets 5 personal points.
Pass: the actor can swap the title once per turn for a 3 point team penalty.
Time runs out: nobody scores.

Personal points mean the night still has one champion, even when you play in teams.

What makes ours different

Twists. With chaos switched on, a twist can hit every phone at the start of a turn:

Steal: the other team can buzz too, and a correct steal scores for them.
Sounds only: no gestures this turn. Sounds only.
Double or nothing: every point this turn is doubled, and a wrong buzz costs the buzzer 5.

Kids act too. A child can take an acting turn on a parent’s phone. They get titles from the kid safe list, even if the grown ups chose Spicy.

No title twice. A title is never repeated in the same night, and if a deck runs low the app quietly borrows from a similar one.

Sample titles

Bollywood: 3 Idiots, Chak De India, Lagaan, Om Shanti Om 90s Bollywood: Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Karan Arjun, Raja Hindustani Hollywood: The Lion King, Jurassic Park, Home Alone Kids: Chhota Bheem, Motu Patlu, The Thirsty Crow

Tips for actors

Give the category, language and word count first. It narrows the field fast.
Start with the easiest word, not the first one.
Split long words into syllables, and use sounds like for anything abstract.
Use your whole body. Big movements read better across a restaurant table.

A short history

Charades began in 18th century France as a riddle game, where each syllable of a word was described in a clever clue. By the early 1800s the English were acting the clues out in drawing rooms, and William Thackeray put a staged charade into Vanity Fair. In India the acted version became the film guessing game played at weddings, college fests and family nights, complete with its own signs for English, Hindi and regional films. Most Indians simply call it dumb charades, because nobody is allowed to speak.

FAQ

How many players do you need for dumb charades? At least four, so you have two teams of two. GroupGames.ai supports up to 16.

How long should each turn be? Sixty seconds is the usual limit and the one the app uses.

What are the signs for a Bollywood movie? Crank a film camera to say it is a movie, then point your thumb down to show it is Hindi. Hold up fingers for the number of words.

Can the other team guess? Not normally. With the Steal twist active, the other team can buzz and score.

What happens if nobody guesses? The turn ends with no points, and the next team acts.

Can kids play dumb charades? Yes. Add them as kid seats. They act from kid safe titles, including a Kids deck of cartoons, rhymes and stories.

Is there a Spicy version? Yes, for adults only: cheeky film and song titles, never explicit. It only appears in crews set to Spicy.