India on Screen: The Palace Hotels of Bond, Bollywood and The Fall

India is the only country where you can sleep in a maharaja's palace, a Nizam's hilltop retreat and a royal summer residence in the middle of a lake, and every one of them has been on screen. When filmmakers want palaces, India doesn't need to build them.

Udaipur

Taj Lake Palace: Octopussy (1983), The Fall (2006)

The white marble palace that appears to float on Lake Pichola was built between 1743 and 1746 as a summer retreat for the Mewar royal family and became a hotel in the 1960s. In Octopussy, Roger Moore's Bond swims out to it to infiltrate the island lair of Maud Adams's title character, a palace populated by her all-female circus troupe. The Taj Lake Palace is still reached only by boat, and its "royal butlers" are descendants of the original palace retainers.

The palace appears again in Tarsem Singh's The Fall (2006), a visually extraordinary fantasy starring Lee Pace that was filmed in more than 20 countries over four years.

Shiv Niwas Palace: Octopussy (1983)

On the shore, Bond's own hotel in Udaipur is the Shiv Niwas Palace, part of the City Palace complex, where he walks past the pool in the central courtyard before checking in.

The Oberoi Udaivilas: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)

In Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone play old friends who meet again years later at a lavish wedding, and that wedding, of Kalki Koechlin's Aditi, was filmed at The Oberoi Udaivilas on the banks of Lake Pichola. Roughly half the film takes place here, including Bunny and Naina's reunion. The film became one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of its year.

Jodhpur: Taj Umaid Bhawan Palace

Umaid Bhawan is one of the largest private residences in the world, a golden sandstone Art Deco palace completed in 1943 for Maharaja Umaid Singh and still home to his grandson's family. Part of it is run as a Taj hotel. It has appeared in Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999), the Sooraj Barjatya family drama starring Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Sonali Bendre; in Tarsem Singh's The Fall (2006); and in Gurinder Chadha's Viceroy's House (2017), with Hugh Bonneville and Gillian Anderson as Lord and Lady Mountbatten in the final months of British India.

In 2018, the palace hosted the wedding of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, which may be its most watched production of all.

Jaipur: Rambagh Palace, Bajirao Mastani (2015)

Rambagh Palace was the principal residence of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II, who turned it into India's first luxury palace hotel after independence. Taj has managed it since 1972. Sanjay Leela Bhansali's historical epic Bajirao Mastani, starring Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, shot palace scenes here. The film won Bhansali the National Film Award for Best Director, and Ranveer Singh won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.

Hyderabad: Taj Falaknuma Palace

The Taj Falaknuma Palace, whose name means "mirror of the sky," was built by a nobleman of the Nizam of Hyderabad's court in the 1890s and later belonged to the Nizam himself. After a decade-long restoration, Taj opened it as a hotel in 2010. Its Venetian chandeliers, Italian marble and 101-seat dining table have since made it one of South Asia's most sought-after film sets. Three major productions shot inside in four years: Radhe Shyam (2022), starring Prabhas and Pooja Hegde; Yash's K.G.F: Chapter 2 (2022), one of the highest-grossing Indian films ever; and Salman Khan's Sikandar (2025).