London, so of course it was a coincidence, and not a cute reference by the filmmakers. When Gandhi (played by Ben Kingsley) travels to London, he stays at Kingsley Hall.


300,000 extras appeared in the funeral sequence. About 200,000 were volunteers and 94,560 were paid a small fee (under contract). The sequence was filmed on 31st Jan 1981, the 33rd anniversary of Gandhi's funeral. 11 crews shot over 20,000 feet of film, which was pared down to 125 seconds in the final release.


Both Alec Guinness and Anthony Hopkins were originally considered for the role of Gandhi.


Ben Kingsley looked so much like Gandhi, many natives thought him to be Gandhi's ghost.


In John Ratzenberger's brief scene, his voice is dubbed.


Richard Attenborough and his wife Sheila Sim owned a share of the rights in Britain's longest-running play "The Mousetrap" which they sold to fund the production of this movie.


John Hurt and Tom Courtenay were among the actors approached by Richard Attenborough about playing the lead role. Ben Kingsley was recommended for the role by Harold Pinter, who had seen him in a play; Pinter made the suggestion to Sam Spiegel, an associate of Attenborough's.


Ben Kingsley's (born Krishna Bhanji) paternal family was from the Indian state of Gujarat, the same state Mahatma Gandhi was from.


It was Michael Attenborough, Richard Attenborough's son, who recommended Ben Kingsley to his father.


Trevor Howard shot his cameo as Judge Broomfield in two days.


The Ian Charleson part was first intended for Michael Denison.


Richard Attenborough first offered Candice Bergen her cameo role in 1966.


The last film of John Boxer.


Last film of Sir John Clements.


For the funeral scene, advertisements calling for 400,000 extras were either distributed in pamphlets and by newspapers in Delhi. Extras were not allowed to wear anything other than white and as part of security measures, turnstiles were built at selected entry points for crowd control. The crew bought any clothing that was not white.


No studio was interested in financing the film. Richard Attenborough cited that most of the financing were solicited from: 1. Joseph E. Levine whom agreed to finance in exchange of Attenborough directing A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Magic (1978). 2. The sale of the ownership share of "The Mousetrap". 3. Jake Eberts, a friend of Attenborough. The remaining of the money were solicited from major companies in England minus the BBC.


Last cinema film of Dominic Guard.


Dustin Hoffman had expressed an early desire to play the title role in Gandhi (1982), but was offered Tootsie (1982) the same year and ended up taking the latter role. He eventually lost the Oscar that year to Ben Kingsley who played Gandhi.


Features Bernard Hill in a small role. Hill would go on to appear in a Best Picture Oscar winner for each of the following decades: Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).