'Colombo is cleaner than Mumbai': Filmmaker says he is appalled - not just by filth but collective indifference

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta on Sunday hit out at Mumbai's crumbling civic infrastructure, saying the Sri Lankan capital - despite its recent economic troubles - is cleaner and more dignified than India's financial hub. 

"Just returned from a long shoot in Colombo. A country grappling with economic crisis and fairly recent political turmoil, and yet its capital is cleaner, more organised, and more dignified than the so-called financial capital of a rising superpower," Mehta wrote on X.

"Every time I come back to Mumbai I am appalled - not just by the filth, the chaos, the broken infrastructure, but by our collective indifference to it. We excuse it all with 'but we have such a large population.' True. But we also have a population that has been taught to expect very little, demand nothing, and normalise the unacceptable," he said.

Mehta, known for his work on socially conscious cinema, said the cost of living in Mumbai offers no dignity in return. "We live in a city where real estate costs a soul and a lifetime. For what? A view of garbage-littered streets, open drains, and civic apathy dressed up in designer branding. A city consumed by consumerism, yet hollowed out from the inside."

He added: "How long will we continue to live like this? Apathetic, exhausted, and resigned — mistaking endurance for pride, and chaos for character... It has given me everything. But it’s strangled by those in power — people who never let it breathe, who won’t allow it to care for us. They profit from its decay and dress it up as resilience."

Mehta's comments add to a rising chorus of voices warning about the toll India's poor urban management is taking on the economy, foreign visitor numbers, and investor confidence. Former Jet Airways CEO Sanjiv Kapoor recently remarked, "India's dirty and potholed cities are hurting India and its economy badly."

He was reacting to French expat Mathilde R, a Gurugram resident, who wrote, "Many of my foreign friends no longer wish to visit." Despite India's premium brands like Vistara and Oberoi, she said, public spaces resemble "post-war zones or underdeveloped nations."

Marketing veteran Suhel Seth called the state of Indian cities "an era of unimaginable urban decay," warning: "When you see headlines in international newspapers saying that people couldn’t get to work because of floods… how is India talking about being the fourth largest economy, a $4 trillion economy in the future?"

Seth added, "These are hell holes…the damage will be to brand India, the damage will be to our investment potential and the damage will be to our reputation as a great nation." Former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant called the situation in Gurugram "a massive failure of governance."