7 Things to Know about Udaipur

1. It is spelt "Oodeypore" in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and is the birthplace of Bagheera the panther.
2. Indian sections of the James Bond film Octopussy were filmed in the city, the Lake Palace and the Monsoon Palace.
3. Roof terraces all over the city play reruns of Octopussy at 7pm every night. Take an auto-rickshaw down to the temples and you'll find one.
4. You might recognise the nearby desert in the dramatic scene where Bond rescues Octopussy (Maud Adams) from an aeroplane being flown by the Kamal Khan (Louis Jordan) and Gobinda (Kabir Bedi).
5. In Octopussy, Bond is sent to Delhi. The audience is never actually told that he is in Udaipur for virtually the entire movie giving the impression that Delhi is super-exotic.
6. It is a mini-Hollywood: Scenes from Darjeeling Limited, Opening Night, Heat and Dust and Gandhi were reportedly filmed there.
7. It is a mini-Bollywood too: Hindi movies have included Guide, Mera Saaya, Phool Bane Angaray, Kachche Dhagey and many more....


Photographs: Nadine Rubin
Right: The elephants that welcome you onto Jag Mandir where Octopussy ran her harem of ambidextrous babes.
Left: The Monsoon Palace which appears in Octopussy as the home of Kamal Khan