The film's title comes from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1966 collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights, but most of the plot is original, with only a scene from Fleming's 'The Property of a Lady' being directly adapted.
Writer George MacDonald Fraser initially considered setting the film in Japan but chose India instead, drawing on research he had done for his novel Flashman; he was hired partly because of his earlier unfilmed script work on James Clavell's Tai Pan.
An early draft's opening motorbike chase set at the Isle of Man TT was discarded by rewriters Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum, though producer Albert R. Broccoli's earlier objections to Bond wearing a gorilla costume and a clown costume were ultimately overruled and both scenes stayed in the film.
The plot's jewel-smuggling angle was inspired by a real Soviet scandal involving General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev's son-in-law, in which the Moscow State Circus was allegedly used to smuggle jewellery.
Roger Moore was reluctant to return after For Your Eyes Only, prompting a public search for a new Bond that included screen tests with Michael Billington, Oliver Tobias and American actor James Brolin, with Timothy Dalton and Lewis Collins also suggested; Brolin said he was already hired and about to move to London when Moore changed his mind.
The producers brought Moore back partly because rival production Never Say Never Again was set to star former Bond Sean Connery, and they felt an established Bond actor would compete better.
Sybil Danning was announced in Prevue magazine as Octopussy but was never cast, reportedly because Broccoli felt her personality was too strong; Faye Dunaway was considered too expensive, and Barbara Carrera turned down the role to instead play Fatima Blush in Never Say Never Again.
Casting director Jane Jenkins was asked to find a South Asian actress for Octopussy and considered Persis Khambatta and Susie Coelho, plus white actresses like Barbara Parkins and Kathleen Turner who she felt could pass for Indian, before Broccoli chose Swedish actress Maud Adams, who had previously darkened her hair for the role and had earlier appeared in The Man with the Golden Gun and screen-tested potential Bonds.
Pam Grier turned down an offer to play a Bond girl in the film.
The first actor cast in the film was Indian tennis player Vijay Amritraj, whom Broccoli met while watching Wimbledon; his character used a tennis racket as a weapon, and like his character, Amritraj had a real fear of snakes which made filming a scene with a snake basket difficult.
Octopussy marked the first appearance of Robert Brown as M following Bernard Lee's death; Brown was recommended by Roger Moore, who had worked with him on the series Ivanhoe, and had previously played Admiral Hargreaves in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Filming began in West Berlin on 10 August 1982 at Checkpoint Charlie, with other Berlin locations including Spandau Prison, the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, before moving to Udaipur, Rajasthan in September 1982, using the Monsoon Palace, Lake Palace, Jag Mandir and Shiv Niwas Palace as key locations.
Most of the crew, including Roger Moore, suffered diet-related problems while shooting in India.
Stunt coordinator Martin Grace, doubling for Roger Moore in the train-climbing scene, fractured his left leg when a concrete pole struck him after a miscommunication led the crew into an unsurveyed section of track.
During the taxi chase sequence, a cyclist seen passing through a sword fight was actually an unaware bystander who wandered into the shot, captured by two cameras, and the footage was kept in the final film.
For the car-tyre stunt where Bond drives Orlov's Mercedes onto the rails, the tyres were kept intact during the scene where they appeared shredded, to avoid accidents.
The pre-title Bede BD-5J mini-jet stunt was flown by Corkey Fornof at over 150 mph; inside the hangar, the aircraft was actually towed by an old Jaguar with its roof removed via a steel pole, with the second unit hiding the car using obstacles, while the hangar explosion afterward was filmed using a miniature set with pieces only four inches long.
The Fabergé egg featured in the film is based on a real 1897 artifact known as the Imperial Coronation egg, and in the film it is listed in the auction catalogue as 'The Property of a Lady,' referencing another Fleming short story from the same collection.
In a moment of diegetic music, Vijay signals his MI6 affiliation by playing the James Bond Theme on a recorder as Bond disembarks near the City Palace.
Composer John Barry returned after being absent from For Your Eyes Only due to tax issues, and deliberately included frequent references to the James Bond Theme to assert Octopussy's status as the official Bond film, since that theme could not be used in the rival Never Say Never Again.
Barry chose to avoid authentic Indian instruments like the sitar in the score, feeling they wouldn't work dramatically, and co-wrote the theme song 'All Time High' with lyricist Tim Rice, sung by Rita Coolidge; it is one of only seven Bond theme songs whose title doesn't match the film's title.
Octopussy was the first Bond film distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after it absorbed United Artists, and premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square on 6 June 1983 in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The film outgrossed its rival Never Say Never Again in North America ($67.8 million versus $55 million) despite being released four months earlier the same year.
The 1985 soundtrack CD release was recalled due to a colour printing error that omitted the album cover credits, making that version a rare collector's item.
