 The film is loosely based on Hermann Hesse's novel "Siddhartha", surrealistically adapted as a musical Western.Massot said his inspiration came from when he joined the Beatles in India, when they were studying Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in early 1968.Massot said he arrived to find only George Harrison and John Lennon there, after their bandmates had left the course early, and the two Beatles "locked into some sort of meditation duel … to see who was the stronger character".