![\"Zohran](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/paents_1762340772346_1762340782740.jpg\" "\\"Zohran")
Zohran Mamdani with his parents, director Mira Nair, and Mahmood Mamdani at the world premiere of Disney\u2019s \u201cQueen of Katwe\u201d as part of the 2016 Toronto Film Festival in Sept 13, 2016<\/p>\nNewly elected New York mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated his victory in a way that quickly drew attention online \u2014 by walking out to the hit Bollywood track Dhoom Machale from the hit 2004 film Dhoom, featuring Hrithik Roshan, John Abraham and Aishwarya Rai. A moment for the books, captured by attendees and shared widely across social media, saw Zohran glowing as he basked in his well-deserved success.<\/p>\n
Zohran Mamdani with his parents, director Mira Nair, and Mahmood Mamdani at the world premiere of Disney\u2019s \u201cQueen of Katwe\u201d as part of the 2016 Toronto Film Festival in Sept 13, 2016<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old Democrat emerged victorious in a closely contested three-way race, defeating former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa. And none of this would have been possible without his cultural ties to South Asia’s biggest export \u2014 Bollywood.<\/p>\n
Zohran’s strong connection to Indian cinema<\/p>\n
Zohran’s ties to Indian cinema run far deeper than his victory playlist. His mother, acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair, is known for globally celebrated works such as Salaam Bombay! (1988), Monsoon Wedding (2001) and The Namesake (2006).<\/p>\n
While the films are not Bollywood per se, they explore the delicate settings of Indian households through the talents of Bollywood stalwarts like Naseeruddin Shah, Shefali Shah, Tabu, and Irrfan Khan. His father, on the other hand, Mahmood Mamdani, is a respected academic and author whose writings explore colonialism, identity and post-independence politics.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, Nair met Mahmood Mamdani while scouting locations for her 1991 film Mississippi Masala \u2014 a cross-cultural love story starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury that explored the expulsion of Indians from Uganda under Idi Amin\u2019s regime. Mahmood was among those displaced, and their meeting eventually led to marriage. The couple moved frequently for his academic work before settling in New York.<\/p>\n
The mother-son creative bond<\/p>\n
Mira has often credited her son with shaping key creative decisions in her career. When she was offered the opportunity to direct a Harry Potter film, she turned to Zohran for advice. \u201cHe said to me, \u2018Mama, many good directors can make Harry Potter, but only you can make The Namesake.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Zohran’s involvement in The Namesake didn\u2019t end there. Nair has revealed that it was her son who convinced her to cast Kal Penn in the lead role. \u201cI was chasing movie stars for Gogol\u2019s role. And he (Zohran) said, \u2018Mama, you have to watch Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.\u2019 I looked at the poster and thought, \u2018How can I like this goofy guy?\u2019\u201d she said in an earlier interview.<\/p>\n
But because no one can convince an Indian mum like her first born son, she watched it, and unsurprisingly took a liking to Penn\u2019s performance in the cult comedy. \u201cI then asked to see him (Penn), and then he got the part because he was the genuine article. Because he was raised in the country, and he was exactly in that sense, Gogol.\u201d A big break for Penn as he made his \u2018serious\u2019 debut alongside legends like Tabu and Irrfan.<\/p>\n
As reported by Variety, Zohran also contributed to Mira Nair\u2019s Queen of Katwe as a third assistant director and music supervisor. He also appeared briefly on screen as a student bookmaker and performed a rap track titled #1 Spice for the film\u2019s soundtrack, released under his stage name, Young Cardamom.<\/p>\n
A symbolic choice<\/p>\n
So, did Bollywood really help him win? It certainly played its part. Throughout his campaign, Zohran leaned into the charm of old Indian classics to connect with voters. From posting videos in Hindi to slipping in classic Bollywood dialogues, he brought a unique \u2018filmy\u2019 energy to New York politics.<\/p>\n
In one viral clip, he recreated Amitabh Bachchan\u2019s legendary Deewar (1975) scene \u2014 \u201cAaj mere paas buildingein hain, property hai, bangla hai\u2026\u201d \u2014 before striking Shah Rukh Khan\u2019s iconic pose and replying, \u201cAap.\u201d In another, he cleverly used Om Shanti Om\u2019s (2007) soundtrack and a scene from Karz (1980) to explain ranked-choice voting. His campaign visuals mirrored retro Bollywood posters \u2014 all bright colours, bold fonts, and cinematic flair \u2014 while his speeches often opened with a familiar \u201cBhai aur behnon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Zohran’s campaign visuals drew inspiration from vintage Bollywood posters, and the campaign didn’t shy away from embracing vibrant hues and expressive typography to reflect Zohran’s South Asian identity. \u201cZohran mentioned Bollywood posters as an inspiration and sent a couple over. There\u2019s definitely expressive typography in them and you see a lot of yellow and red,\u201d the designer, Aneesh Bhoopathy, explained to The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cWe weren\u2019t going to shy away from looking different from the standard campaign font. And playing into the identity of being South Asian. So we tried some different types of styles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following his win, director Zoya Akhtar congratulated him on Instagram, sharing a story that read, \u201cZohran, you beauty\u201d, with a heart and firework emojis. Mira proudly reshared the post, celebrating her son\u2019s milestone moment.<\/p>\n
As Zohran begins his tenure as mayor, his Dhoom Machale moment stands out as a snapshot of how the influence of Indian cinema, the soft power of entertainment, moves beyond winning hearts. It can quite literally win you an election!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newly elected New York mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated his victory in a way that quickly drew attention online…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5527,84248,156,14082,84249,409,74343,111,139,69,49483],"class_list":{"0":"post-119419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-bollywood","9":"tag-dhoom-machale","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-indian-cinema","12":"tag-mira-nair","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-naseeruddin-shah","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}