Fritz Lang actually was said to mock both this movie and his prequel with German puns: Das indische grabmal (The Indian Tomb (1959)) he renamed to "Das kindische Grabmal" ("The childish tomb"); Der Tiger von Eschnapur (The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959)) became "The Tiger von Dextropur" (Dextropur being a brand of Dextrose Sugar).
While in India Fritz Lang had also hoped to make "Kali Yung " about the Thuggee cult, but it fell through.
The Indian Tomb (1959) (The Indian Tomb) is the second of two feature films, comprising what has come to be known as Fritz Lang's Indian Epic; the first is The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959) (The Tiger of Eschnapur). Both are based on the 1918 novel Das indische Grabmal, written by Lang's ex-wife, Thea von Harbou, who died in 1954. The novel had earlier been filmed twice; each time as a two-part German film; in 1921 as Mysteries of India, Part I: Truth (1921), and 1938 as Das indische Grabmal (1938) respectively.
The movie's Greek version title ("O Tafos tou Indou") is the nickname given to the indoor sports hall of the Greek club Panathinaikos. It was due to the similarity of the stairs of the tomb depicted in the movie with those of the hall that a connection was made. The hall was inaugurated in 1959, the year that the movie was released.
Interiors were shot at the Spandau Studios in West Berlin with sets designed by the art directors Helmut Nentwig and Willy Schatz.