New Delhi: Eighteen years after Life in a…Metro, Anurag Basu’s Metro In Dino offers a fresh take on love and relationships in urban India. Using Mumbai as a backdrop for a second time, Basu explores how technology complicates romance—by causing emotional disconnect between individuals.
“The need for dopamine is still the same, the source has just changed,” Basu told ThePrint, explaining how people now seek happiness from their smartphones and not their partners. “Now, instead of late-night conversations with each other, people are glued to their phones, reels, chats, and internet scrolling.”
Metro… In Dino, released in theatres on 4 July, weaves together four parallel love stories spanning different generations, but bound by a common theme: the quest for happiness.
The film, featuring an ensemble cast comprising Sara Ali Khan, Aditya Roy Kapur, Neena Gupta, Anupam Kher, Konkona Sen Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi, and Ali Fazal, has made Rs 19 crore at the box office so far.
Anurag Basu recalls how, in the original film, the characters of Konkona Sen Sharma and Irrfan Khan met through the matrimonial site shaadi.com.
“That’s all we had back then,” he said. “Today, dating is more accessible. People are more open, and the market is flooded with dating apps. Everyone is on them.”
However, this is just a phase, he said.
“Gen Alpha isn’t interested in dating apps. If I make another Metro sequel a decade from now, the dating landscape will look completely different again.”
Gen Z vs Gen X vs Millennials
Anurag Basu acknowledges that relationships are more challenging today than before—not because the desire for love and happiness has changed, but because the ways of seeking them have.
“And that’s where the complications begin—both the good and the bad,” said Basu.
“Twenty years ago, we used to experience relationships first and learn from them later. Now, people already ‘know’ everything about relationships before they’ve even been in one,” he explained, describing Gen Zs as “confused.”
He contrasts this with Gen X and millennials, who, according to him, rarely question their choices as deeply as today’s youth do.
And this is a rather positive shift, stressed Basu.
“It can be confusing, but at least they’re content with themselves…They don’t necessarily seek relationships to feel fulfilled. They find joy in their own company, in travelling, exploring, and living independently. At their age, I couldn’t have imagined not being in a relationship or having someone by my side.”
There’s a growing number of people who are single and above 25, he added. “It’s much more common now than it was before.”
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Rediscovering love
Metro…In Dino also drops a few nuggets of wisdom on marriage along the way.
“Marriage may not teach you much else, but it definitely teaches you how to act,” says one character in the film. Another reflects on the idea that to make love last, you have to keep falling for the same person—over and over again.
That very thought—of constantly rediscovering love—comes straight from director Anurag Basu’s own life. Married to his wife Tani for about 25 years now, Basu says this is something he has learned over time.
“You have to keep rediscovering the love for your partner,” he said. “I didn’t have this wisdom 18 years ago. With Metro…In Dino, this is the one message I really wanted to pass on to the younger generation, to my daughters: Don’t give up too soon. Give it time.”
Basu compares the excitement of rediscovering love to the thrill of new romance.
“Both are equally fun,” he said, grinning. “But honestly, rediscovery is even more exciting.”
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‘KK was rare’
Comparing Metro…In Dino to his 2007 film Life in a… Metro, Basu points out that the new film has a much lighter tone.
“The previous one was darker, heavier. I didn’t want to go down that road again. This time, I wanted something more fun, a little over-the-top,” he said.
Keeping the story grounded while giving it a whimsical, almost fantasy-like touch was a tightrope walk for the team, said Basu.
One thing the filmmaker truly missed during this project, however, was the voice of singer KK (Krishnakumar Kunnath), who died in 2022 after a live concert. He was 53.
KK had collaborated with Basu on several projects, including Life in a… Metro.
“The moment we created the first track with Pritam, Dil Ka Kya, we all felt KK’s absence deeply,” Basu remembered. KK’s voice fit perfectly with Pritam’s compositions, stressed Basu.
In fact, ever since Basu’s first film – Gangster (2006) – KK was always his “first choice.”
“KK was rare—he could sing rock with this softness, this sweetness that very few singers have. He was truly one of a kind.”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)