Indiana Jones' quest for the Sankara stones stolen from a village in the Mayapore Hills by worshippers of the evil Thugee Cult represented the theme of the second Indiana Jones adventure. The High Priest, Mola Ram [Amrish Puri] is seen wearing this headdress in the film when Indiana emerges from the cave into the cult ceremony.

Many of the props used in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom were made at Elstree Studios, England, where the Temple scene was staged and filmed.

Tom Smith recalls that he had heard about the headdress that was needed and went to see the designers. Initially, they had planned to use some real horns that were heavy and the whole design was rather cumbersome. He offered to make a model in fibreglass and first modelled three prototypes in clay. Having won Spielberg's seal of approval, he went ahead and made two similar headdresses.