For all the South Indian rice recipes, I use short grain rice varieties like ponni or sona masoori. You can use raw rice or parboiled rice. While basmati rice is an option, I would keep that as a last one. And yes, you can use millets/bulgur wheat/buckwheat groats instead of quinoa. You can use grains of your choice as per your diet but make sure to adjust the cooking time, especially if you are using brown rice.