Sri Lankans not Indians

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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

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reckless_life — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 01:37 AM)

Why on earth did Spielberg use Sri Lankans instead of Indians in this movie?
The film is meant to be set in North India near the Himalayas and Delhi. The language spoken there would most likely be Hindi or something similar. Yet Spielberg uses Sri Lankans who speak Sinhala, a language that is not spoken in India at all. On top of that Sinhalese people are Buddhists and not Hindus like they are portrayed in this film. Mola Ram on the other hand was speaking Hindi, so you have two different languages being spoken.
Spielberg clearly didn't pay a lot of attention to this aspect of the film.

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charzhino — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 05:12 AM)

I think there were legal reasons he couldn't shoot in India. Didn't bother me, its not like the average westerner is going to mistake Sri Lanka from India from what we see in the movie.

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horsenbuggy — 9 years ago(January 25, 2017 04:35 PM)

I suspected that it wasn't India because it was too beautiful.

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Blubonnet_Spearman — 9 years ago(January 12, 2017 12:14 AM)

It's just a movie not a documentary. No one cares

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guer0071 — 9 years ago(January 20, 2017 09:07 PM)

But the OP really wants to make sure everyone knows they know these languages.

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Animated — 3 years ago(April 25, 2022 03:26 PM)

Wikipedia says the film was intended to be shot in India but the Indian government objected to its depiction of Indian culture, so Spielberg went to Sri Lanka instead.
Oh, and if the Thuggee cult are supposed to be Kali worshippers, then then why is the young Maharajah named Zalim SINGH - a Sikh name rather than a Hindu one, I believe.