Trivia

The gong in the title sequence is the same one used to summon King Kong six years earlier.

When Annie the elephant shakes a rope bridge while Cutter and Gunga Din are trying to cross it, the bridge was eight feet off the ground. The background was a realistic painting of a chasm.

Sabu was the first choice to play Gunga Din; when it became clear he was unavailable, Sam Jaffe was hired in his place. In an interview years later, Jaffe (a Jewish Russian-American) was asked how he so convincingly played an Indian Hindu. Jaffe replied he kept telling himself to "Think Sabu."

Budgeted at $1.915 million, this was the most expensive film RKO had produced to that date. It was nearly $500,000 over budget.

This was the second-highest-grossing film of 1939, behind Autant en emporte le vent (1939).