ABSTRACT
When the British television channel BBC 2 announced in 2016 that it was about to produce a reality show based on the successful movie franchise, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel—in which a number of older celebrities would stay in a mansion in Jaipur, India in order to test out the possibility of retiring there—it was a remarkable demonstration of the ways in which the forces of Western cinematic representation, revitalized neo-orientalism, neoliberal capitalism, and the voyeuristic impulses of reality television are converging in the contemporary moment. The chapter examines the filmic texts of The Exotic Marigold Hotel and Slumdog Millionaire in specific relation to the highly successful "Incredible India!" advertising campaign to demonstrate how these narratives continue to inform one another. Though slum tourism would certainly not be part of the Indian government's plan for showcasing its soft power, much of the same rhetoric around immersive experientiality is reflected in "grittiness" of Slumdog Millionaire's frenetic tour of India's "underbelly.".
