During his meteoric rise to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for New York City Mayor, Zohran Mamdani garnered endorsements from Hollywood stars like Emily Ratajkowski and Ava DuVernay. However, Mamdani’s connection to the silver screen runs much deeper: his mother, Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair, has credited him with offering advice at several key moments of her illustrious career. Nair gained critical acclaim early on in her career with the 1988 indie Salaam Bombay!, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. This led to a number of bigger opportunities, including an offer to direct Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth film in the boy wizard’s big-screen franchise. But it was Mamdani, then just 14 years old, who encouraged his mother to follow her heart and direct The Namesake instead. That 2006 movie, which focused on a family of first-generation Indian immigrants, was further shaped by the future mayoral candidate when he convinced his mom to watch Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, a movie he loved, and consider casting Kal Penn in the leading role. “It was a valuable, beautiful piece of advice,” Nair said when asked about Mamdani’s counsel in a recent interview. As he grew older, the creative relationship between Mamdani and Nair even evolved into one of active collaboration. In the late 2010s, while attempting to launch a rap career under the memorable moniker “Young Cardamom,” Mamdani recorded a rap song, “#1 Spice,” which made the soundtrack of Nair’s 2016 biopic, Queen of Katwe.
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