Before making Titanic, James Cameron convinced 20th Century Fox to let him shoot the real wreck, which lies about 3,800 metres down in the Atlantic. The crew dived to it 12 times in 1995 in submersibles, a risky job where any flaw in the hull could be fatal. One dive ended in a collision that damaged both the submersible and the ship. Cameron then spent six months researching the passengers and crew and built a detailed timeline of the voyage, verified by historians. The team used a 17-million-gallon tank in Mexico to film the sinking at full scale, with a tilting platform and a 1/8th scale model of the stern. Cameron said the aim was a visualisation as if the filmmakers had gone back in a time machine.

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.