Why James Bond's Mumbai scenes were cancelled

Director Sam Mendes had to abandon his plans to shoot 23rd James Bond movie Skyfall in Mumbai because he found it "incredibly difficult".

The movie was meant to open in Mumbai, with a long chase that would have seen Bond racing through a densely populated market, jumping on a motorbike and eventually fighting an opponent on top of a train.

But the production team dropped the idea after realising it was difficult to shoot in the narrow and chaotic streets of Mumbai, the Hollywood Reporter said.

"It is logistically incredibly difficult to shut down the center of an enormous Indian city. We tried to make it work and to embrace the chaos, but in the end there were too many dangers - I don't mean from people trying to sabotage production, but there are narrow streets that are difficult to film in. I was very disappointed," Mendes said.

The 47-year-old director then went to explores places like Cape Town and Johannesburg for shooting but they proved equally fruitless.

And it was then, Mendes visited Istanbul, where part of the movie is shot.

"I found it was everything we wanted and more, and gave us so many ideas. Suddenly you are walking through the Grand Bazaar and someone says, 'You can go up on the roof,' and then you find a way of factoring that into the story," he added.