Chattar Lal
Chattar Lal was the American-educated prime minister of Pankot Palace in 1935 India. Although seemingly mild-mannered, he possessed a dark secret. Not only was he the true power behind the throne of Pankot, and not Zalim Singh, but he was also a member of Mola Ram's evil Thuggee cult, allowing them to conduct ceremonies in a secret temple within the palace. When Indiana Jones, Willie Scott and Short Round stumbled upon the temple, Jones was forced to drink the Blood of Kali, Short Round enslaved and Willie prepared to be sacrificed to Kali by Mola Ram.
Lal ordered Indiana to personally lower Willie into the lava, but Short Round, having escaped from the mines, snapped him out of the Black Sleep and brought him to his senses. Lal attempted to do it himself, attacking Indiana with a knife, but the archaeologist beat him back and knocked him between the spokes of the wheel which raised and lowered the sacrificial victims. Lal's body jammed the wheel, allowing Willie to be saved.
Comments
Though merely injured and knocked out in the final film, in the script for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as well as the novelization, Lal dies by falling into molten lava.
