George Lucas deliberately set the story a year before Raiders of the Lost Ark so he would not have to reuse the Nazis as villains, effectively making the film a prequel.

Lucas originally imagined an opening chase with Indiana Jones on a motorcycle on the Great Wall of China leading to a hidden valley of dinosaurs, and also considered using the Monkey King as a plot device, but Chinese authorities refused filming permission.

An earlier Lucas treatment set part of the story in a haunted castle in Scotland, but Spielberg felt it was too similar to Poltergeist (1982), so the setting was changed to a demonic temple in India.

Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark, turned down writing Temple of Doom because he found the story 'horrible' and 'mean-spirited'; Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz were hired instead for their knowledge of Indian culture.

Gunga Din (1939) served as a key influence on the film, including its depiction of the Thuggee cult and the goddess Kali as a demonic figure.

Just as Indiana Jones was named after Lucas's Alaskan Malamute, the character Willie Scott was named after Spielberg's Cocker Spaniel, and Short Round was named after Huyck's dog, itself named after a character in The Steel Helmet (1951).

The film's opening musical number was originally written for the long-in-development Radioland Murders script, and Lucas pushed for a Busby Berkeley-style dance number to open the movie.

An early idea for the dinner scene was a tiger hunt, but Spielberg refused to stay in India long enough to film one, so the crew instead devised the infamous bug and monkey-brain banquet using rubber props filled with custard.

Deleted from the script were a dogfight scene and a subplot where Kali-blood drinkers became superhuman zombies, and the film's title was changed during pre-production from 'Temple of Death' to 'Temple of Doom'.

Around 6,000 boys auditioned worldwide for the role of Short Round; Ke Huy Quan was only there to accompany his younger brother's audition but was cast himself after casting staff noticed him coaching his brother off-camera.

More than 100 actresses auditioned for the role of Willie Scott, including a then-unknown Sharon Stone, before Spielberg cast Kate Capshaw after showing Ford her videotaped screen test.

Kate Capshaw dyed her brown hair blonde specifically so Willie Scott would visually contrast with Karen Allen's brunette Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

To avoid casting Western actors in dark makeup for principal Indian roles, filmmakers secured a special permit for Indian actor Amrish Puri, who was working on 18 films simultaneously and initially declined the villain role until convinced by Richard Attenborough.

Wrestler Pat Roach, who plays the Thuggee overseer Indy brawls with in the mines, had also appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark as both a German mechanic and a giant Sherpa opponent.

Dan Aykroyd makes a brief cameo speaking with a British accent as Earl Weber, and Spielberg, Lucas, Frank Marshall, and Kathleen Kennedy all have uncredited cameos at the airport.

The Indian government denied permission to film in North India and Amer Fort over objections to the script's depiction of Thuggee 'voodoo' elements and demands for script changes and final-cut approval, forcing the production to relocate to Kandy, Sri Lanka, using matte paintings and scale models for the palace.

Harrison Ford suffered a severe herniated spinal disc while filming a bedroom fight scene, forcing Lucas to shut down production temporarily while Ford recovered at Centinela Hospital; stunt double Vic Armstrong filled in for five weeks.

Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe fell ill with a fever for nearly two weeks during filming and was unable to work, further disrupting the shoot.

Macau stood in for 1930s Shanghai during filming, and despite the on-set setbacks, Spielberg still finished principal photography on schedule and on budget by August 26, 1983.

Kate Capshaw's ornate opening-number gown, hand-made from original 1920s-30s beads by Barbara Matera, was the only one of its kind; while drying on a tree during location shooting in Sri Lanka, an elephant ate part of the back of the dress, requiring emergency repairs.

To build the rope bridge sequence, the filmmakers enlisted a group of British engineers from Balfour Beatty who were working nearby on the Victoria Dam.

About 80 percent of the film was actually shot on soundstages at Elstree Studios, with clever lighting by Douglas Slocombe disguising the artificial locations.

For the mine cart chase, the visual effects team combined roller coaster footage, scale models, and dolls doubling for the actors, with sound designer Ben Burtt recording real roller coasters at Disneyland for the sequence's audio.

Make-up artist Tom Smith based Mola Ram's headdress skull on a cow skull, since using a human or sacred animal skull would have been considered sacrilegious, and incorporated a latex shrunken head into the design.

The Shanghai nightclub where Willie Scott performs is named 'Club Obi-Wan,' a nod to the Star Wars franchise.

Following complaints about the film's intense violence (and similar complaints about Spielberg-produced Gremlins, released two weeks later), Spielberg himself suggested that the MPAA create an intermediate rating, leading to the introduction of the PG-13 rating within two months of the film's release.

The film was temporarily banned in India upon release due to its controversial depiction of the country, and only became available there later on home video.

Temple of Doom grossed a record-breaking $45.7 million in its opening week in the US and went on to earn $333.1 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 1984.