- In the 1960s, after watching a play based on Foster's novel "A Passage to India", David Lean decided to make it into a film. At the time, however, Foster was reluctant to sell the rights to the film. After Foster's death in 1970, the rights to the adaptation went to Cambridge Academy, which sold it to filmmakers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin .
- When looking for investors for the film, an American film company offered to add a rape scene to the film, but David Lean did not agree. .
- The film is the comeback of David Lean's 14-year hiatus. He was seventy-five years old when the film was filmed, but regardless of his age, he personally led the filming in India, Nepal and Kashmir. .
- David Lean's chosen location for Malabar Cave has spectacular granite, but no natural cave, the crew blasted holes in the rock to serve as cave entrances .
- There is a plot in the novel about Mrs. Moore's beliefs being seriously shaken in the cave. For the purpose of filming, David Lean moved the scene outside the cave and arranged for Mrs. Moore to lie on a chair and look up at the bright moon. He arranged for the actor to wear a pair of sunglasses, intending to express everything on the screen in a strange color from the time she put on the sunglasses, but because the stunt was unsuccessful, he had to abandon this plan and use the moonlit background and the moon instead footage to illustrate how her faith is shaken .
- David Lean discovered a place in India many years ago with some erotic statues standing in the bushes, covered with ivy, but by the time he was filming "A Passage to India", it was a neat little park, all Statues are cleaned up. So, he spent a week taking photos there, and then based on the photos and his memories of that year, he built a temple scene, made a god statue with plaster, and placed fake ivy on it. .
A Passage to India behind the scenes gags
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Richard Fielding: [on the glasses found on Aziz after the latter's arrest] If he had assaulted her he'd scarcely bring the evidence back with him.
McBryde: Doesn't surprise me.
Richard Fielding: I don't follow.
McBryde: When you think of crime, you think of English crime. The psychology's different here.
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McBryde: [at the trial] Before we begin, I'd like to state what I believe to be a universal truth: the darker races are attracted to the fairer, but not vice-versa.
Advocate Amrit Rao: Even when the lady is LESS attractive than the gentleman?
[court breaks out in laughter]