While Udaipurs culture is strongly linked to the Lake Picholo, it’s location as the ancient capital of the Mewar Kingdom and the palaces that come with that, the most evident cultural phenomenon as one walks the streets is the James Bond movie Octopussy.

A large part of the movie was shot on location in the city and used famous landmarks such as the

• Taj Lake Palace and Jag Mandir (Octopussy’s Lake home) .
• The Monsoon Palace and surrounding area (Kamal Khan’s lair) .
• The Shiv Nawas Hotel – the hotel that Bond stays in and plays backgammon against Louise Jordan’s Character.
• Gangaur Ghat – riverside where Bond arrives and meets Vijay for the first time.
• Jagdish Temple – market place fight scene during the TukTuk chase sequence.

The city would have been alive with Bond Mania during the filming In 1982 and now you can enjoy the movie 365 days a year in any one of the hundreds of restaurants or bakeries in the Lal Ghat area of the city.

Bond’s introduction to ‘Delhi’ places a little geographical trick – using backdrops of the Taj Mahal and the riverside of Agra to promote that this is indeed India into the viewer’s minds.

As a bond movie goes Octopussy was one of the more memorable. Starring Roger Moore as James Bond and Maud Adams as the titled character the action is mainly split between Germany and India.

“You have a nasty habit of surviving.”

The villains are played by french actor Louis Jordan (Gigi) and the always excellent Steven Berkoff (Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo: First Blood Part 2) as a mad Russian General. Supporting roles for Local actors Kabir Bedi as the strong man villain – Gobinda and Tennis Superstar Vijay Amritraj playing the British secret service contact. It also had twins David and Anthony Meyer playing Russian assassins.

As well as Maud Adams, another Swede lady played Bond girl Magda (Kristina Wayborn).

The gadgets consisted of a fountain pen that emits acid (that Bond uses to escape the Monsoon Palace), a homing device (hidden in a Russian Fabrege Egg) and an accompanying watch to track it. No signature Bond car in this movie though but there is a chase scene involving Tuk-Tuks as well as a small Jet plane in the opening sequence and a crocodile submarine used in one of the best scenes where Bond uses it to escape the Jag Mandir Palace.

So if you enjoy James Bond, Roger Moore and in particular the movie Octopussy- then come to Udaipur and immerse yourself in the locations.