Remember Bombay Boys?

Kaizad Gustad's campy Hinglish film is 25 years old. Feel old, feel cringey, sing I am Mumbhai, as the cast and crew rewind

- Karishma Upadhyay

Fresh out of New York University's Film School, Kaizad Gustad - Mumbai-schooled and Sydneybred - landed in Mumbai at an interesting time in the Hindi film industry. It was the mid-'90s. Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn were flexing their biceps, while the Khans - Salman, Aamir and Shah Rukh were romancing their way into India's hearts. Multiplexes made space for medium to low-budget films. These broke away from the action/romance formula. Gustad jumped right in.

His was a story of three expat boys finding themselves on their maiden visit to Mumbai. Bombay Boys referenced the film industry, the underworld and homosexuality. It was irreverent and refused to be coy about sex or violence. It starred Naveen Andrews, Tara Deshpande, Rahul Bose, Alexander Gifford, and Naseeruddin Shah in one of his most feverishly outrageous roles as Mastana, a mobster and producer of B-Grade films. The music, by Dhruv Ghanekar and Ashutosh Phatak, featured tracks by Indus Creed, Lucky Ali, Anaida and Jaaved Jaafery's rap number, Mumbhai. Bombay Boys opened in Indian theatres on December 25.

"Though I had lived in Sydney, London and New York, Bollywood was king for me," says Gustad. "I decided to write a small film based on my experiences with diaspora Indians, some of whom were more Indian than most Indians. I thought it would be fun to throw three NRIs head-first into what was then a very cosmopolitan Mumbai." Naveen Andrews, was fresh off the success of The English Patient (1996).