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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallOctopussy brought James Bond to India for a story filmed partly in Udaipur, where palace views and busy streets became the backdrop for one of the series’ most memorable chase scenes. The title’s “saris dropped” is a wry reference to the film’s sexualized imagery; “camels balked” points to Bond’s auto-rickshaw ride over a camel in the marketplace.
Where was Octopussy filmed in India?
India location photography began in Udaipur, Rajasthan, on 12 September 1982, according to the American Film Institute Catalog’s 1983 entry. The India crew spent three weeks on principal photography before returning to England; a second unit remained in India for another month.
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Rajasthan Tourism’s Udaipur guide identifies several places seen in the film: the Lake Palace Hotel and Lake Pichola, Jag Mandir, Monsoon Palace, Lal Ghat, and streets around the city. These are real Udaipur settings, not a single constructed backdrop.
Why India was chosen
The AFI catalog says Japan had been considered before screenwriter George MacDonald Fraser chose India. Fraser had researched the country for his 1969 novel Flashman. That decision gave the film a setting whose palaces, lakes, and crowded streets could support Bond’s mix of espionage and spectacle.
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What do “saris dropped” and “camels balked” mean?
“Saris dropped” is not a report of a production mishap. It is a sharp, compressed description of the movie’s sexualized treatment of women, including its use of women in saris as part of the film’s visual appeal.
The camel reference comes from the Udaipur marketplace chase. Vijay drives Bond in an auto-rickshaw, or tuk-tuk, through the market and over a camel. The official James Bond feature on the tuk-tuk chase confirms that the sequence was filmed in Udaipur; Scroll’s 2015 account by Nandini Ramnath describes the camel jump.
Rank #2
Udaipur as spectacle, not documentary
The chase surrounds Bond with images such as snake charmers, sword swallowers, and fire walkers. They help make the sequence a fast-moving spectacle, but they are familiar cinematic shorthand rather than a documentary portrait of everyday life in India. Ramnath’s account discusses both those images and the use of Udaipur locations.
That distinction matters when revisiting the film: its settings are identifiable places, but the scenes arrange them around the heightened, exoticized world of a Bond adventure. The locations can tell viewers where filming happened; they do not make the movie a neutral guide to Indian society.
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Rank #3
Heat, shirts, and a reported crowd anecdote
Roger Moore recalled the practical challenge of maintaining Bond’s immaculate appearance on location. The official James Bond site quotes him: “Working on such locations was always very difficult because Bond is not supposed to sweat. Bond’s hair doesn’t get untidy. He’s always in a dinner jacket. I became exhausted changing shirts so I didn’t look as though I was perspiring.”
Ramnath also reports a making-of documentary anecdote in which Moore says, “We had asked for 5,000 extras and 10,000 turned up.” That is Moore’s reported remark, not an independently verified head count.
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- Audio Commentary featuring Sir Roger Moore
- Audio Commentary featuring Director John Glen
- James Brolin Original Screen Tests
- Brolin on Bond
- Storyboard Sequences
What to keep in mind when watching or visiting
- Rewatching the film: the Udaipur sequences are useful as a record of the places selected for filming, while the bazaar imagery should be read as staged Bond spectacle.
- Visiting Udaipur: Rajasthan Tourism identifies the film locations, but that does not establish current visitor access to every site. Check present-day opening and itinerary details before planning around a particular landmark.
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