 Critics complimented Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey for being well researched and compelling, but they also found Lohan's presence to be odd. In her Lost in Showbiz column in The Guardian, Marina Hyde repeatedly criticized the documentary, in particular the choice to include Lohan, since its inception. She mentions Lohan's then recent conviction for "drink-driving and drug possession", describing her as a "trainwreck star" with a "[career] ... in foreclosure" and goes on to question if BBC was doing "image-laundering services" and whether the decision to hire Lohan was "symptomatic of a wider cultural malaise". Salon.com's Mary Elizabeth Williams likewise criticized BBC3's decision to have Lohan, whom she called a "disaster-prone starlet", front the programme, though she also said that "an effort that raises awareness of a global epidemic – even one that employs a crazy hot chick – is still an effort."
