Releasing 24th February 2012
After the international box-office success of the multi-Oscar and BAFTA winning film Slumdog Millionaire and the UK’s top grossing Bollywood film to date, My Name is Khan, Twentieth Century Fox releases The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, on 24th February 2012.
From the director of Shakespeare in Love, John Madden, the film features Bollywood’s latest crush and top model Tena Desae romancing Slumdog Millionaire star and BAFTA nominee Dev Patel in a feel-good comedy boasting the cream of British talent. They are joined by veteran Indian actress Lillete Dubey (Monsoon Wedding, Housefull, Kal Ho Naa Ho), who plays the mother of Dev Patel’s character Sonny.
For a disparate group of English pensioners (Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup), retirement takes an unconventional turn when they abandon their homeland, enticed by advertisements for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a seemingly luxurious sanctuary for “the elderly and beautiful” in Jaipur, India. On arrival, they discover that the hotel falls somewhat short of the romantic idyll promised in the brochure, but they are gradually won over by the ever-optimistic young entrepreneurial manager Sonny (Dev Patel), and tentatively embark on a new adventure, finding that life can begin again when you let go of the past.
Setting the screen alight is Indian starlet Tena Desae. The famous model turned Bollywood actress plays Sunaina, the exotic beauty who brings her own brand of vitality and humour to the film. Tena made her Bollywood debut in the 2011 ‘Yeh Faasley’ and first came to prominence as a runner-up on Indian reality TV show ‘Get Gorgeous’.
John Madden directs the film from a script by Ol Parker based on Pride & Prejudice screenwriter Deborah Moggach’s novel These Foolish Things.
