Sholay is a 1975 Hindi action-adventure film about two petty criminals hired by a retired police officer to capture the bandit Gabbar Singh. Critics gave it a poor reception at first, but favourable word of mouth turned it into a major box office success. It ran for more than five years at one Mumbai cinema and set records for continuous screenings. It blends Indian dacoit films with Spaghetti Westerns and samurai cinema, a mix sometimes called the Curry Western. Its dialogue entered everyday Indian speech, and the British Film Institute ranked it first in its 2002 poll of Top 10 Indian Films.

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.