“A day in the life of Mumbai is the theme of my film,” says Sen about his comedy Krazzy 4 that has Irrfan Khan, Rajpal Yadav, Arshad Warsi and Suresh Menon in the lead. “The four main characters flee from a mental rehabilitation centre in Khandala and land in Mumbai, where they spend a day.

As they interact with people caught up in their busy lives, the indifference of Mumbai comes through.” The metropolis forms the backdrop of Yardi’s C Company too, a Balaji Telefilms production.

Sirf... talks about the struggle for existence in Mumbai, zooming in on the lives of three sets of urban couples (played by Ranvir Shorey and Sonali Kulkarni, Kay Kay Menon and Sonali Kulkarni as well as Rituparna Sengupta and Parvin Dabas). “The crisis in the lives of the main characters is integral to life in Mumbai. For instance, one of the couples (played by Shorey and Kulkarni) end up not giving enough time to their child, because of the long hours spent in commuting from home to workplace,” says Nayar.

Among the other characters are a struggling assistant director and his girlfriend (played by Ankur Khanna and Nauheed Cyrusi) who search for an elusive rented home in the space-crunched city. “I connect with Ankur Khanna’s character as I went through similar struggles in my early days in Mumbai,” the director says.

Last year, Anurag Basu’s Life In A… Metro—which went on to become a big hit—too depicted life in modern Mumbai through the dreams, desires and anxieties of three couples. While both Metro and Rajat Kapoor’s more recent Mithya panned across the much-portrayed glamorous south Mumbai, both Krazzy 4 and C Company will show the nouveau rich suburbs.

“C Company is set in a middleclass residential area in Andheri East. The film takes a critical look at the workings of the media industry, which is again more alive in Mumbai,” says Yardi. His film, starring Tusshar Kapoor, Rajpal Yadav and Anupam Kher, even makes frequent references to Mumbai’s burgeoning television industry and the ever-growing popularity of daily soaps. “We have also shot in places like King Circle and Lokhandwala.”

Sen’s Krazzy 4, produced by Rakesh Roshan, has been shot in Bandstand and Mumbai’s largest mall, Inorbit in Goregaon. To add to our visual delight, Sirf will even have images of Mumbai’s omnipresent BEST buses and rickety autorickshaws, apart from the more popular local trains and the heritage landmarks like Horniman Circle and the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Bollywood, the most common synonym for ‘Bombay’ too comes into the picture, as Makrand Despande’s forthcoming Drream Man that has Menon in the lead presents the city in the backdrop of its dream industry. “My film is set in Bollywood. We have shot across the city, and are especially showing the studios in the suburbs,” says Deshpande.