UNTIL the last few years, Andheri in North Mumbai was best known for being the largest suburb in India’s largest city. Industrial offices and dirt-caked apartment buildings framed streets so densely packed with cars and scooters that traveling a mile could easily take a half-hour.

Today, the traffic is thicker than ever, but this once-bland area has reinvented itself into a destination neighborhood full of elegant flats, trendy restaurants and bars, top-quality spas and a mix of big name-brand stores and homegrown boutiques.

The overcrowding and astronomical cost of living in South Mumbai have led to an influx of young professionals, families with young children and expats in Andheri, where the housing prices are more digestible. And, since the suburb is also home to studios where Bollywood movies and television shows are filmed, show-biz types have also moved in. The neighborhood’s newfound reputation was solidified with the 2007 opening of Mega Mall, a large shopping complex with international stores like Sisley and S.Oliver.