Psycho was loosely inspired by the crimes of Ed Gein, a Wisconsin murderer and grave robber, and Robert Bloch turned that inspiration into a 1959 novel. Paramount Pictures rejected the story, calling it too repulsive, so Alfred Hitchcock offered to finance the film himself in exchange for a stake in the negative. He shot it in black and white using the crew from his television series, keeping the budget near $807,000. Hitchcock and writer Joseph Stefano expanded the first act around Marion Crane and moved the central character's introduction to the twenty-minute mark. Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh took much lower fees than their usual rates.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.