Did You Know NYC Mayor Nominee Zohran Mamdani Convinced Mom Mira Nair To Direct The Namesake Instead Of Harry Potter?

Renowned Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani's son, Zohran Kwame Mamdani won the democratic primary race for New York City Mayor on Tuesday (June 24), by defeating Andrew Cuomo. If elected, he will become the first Muslim and Indian American mayor of New York City.

Did you know Zohran made his mom Mira Nair turn down a Harry Potter film and make the critically acclaimed film The Namesake? Yes, you read it right. The 33-year-old played an important role behind the making of the cult classic, starring late Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Kal Penn.

When Mira was about to make The Namesake, she was offered Harry Potter 4. She was in dilemma and then sought advice of her 14-year-old son Zohran, who was a huge fan of Harry Potter books.

In an interview with Vir Sanghvi at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2018, Mira said of getting the offer after Vanity Fair, but she was sad as she lost her mother-in-law, due to medical malpractice in New York.

She added, "I was deep in melancholy. But at that time, I read The Namesake, the beautiful novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. It was also about the death of a parent. I then decided to make a film on it. I then got an offer to direct Harry Potter."

When she asked her son about it, he told her that "there are many good directors who can make Harry Potter, but there is only one director who can make Namesake."

The filmmaker also revealed that it was Zohran who convinced her to cast Kal Penn in the film. Penn played Gogol, Irrfan and Tabu's on-screen son.

Who is Zohran Mamdani?

Mamdani, a democratic socialist and a state assemblyman from Queens, has Ugandan heritage. He was born on October 18, 1991 in Kampala, Uganda, to Mira Nair and Professor Mahmood Mamdani. He is an ex-rapper who has made a music video titled Nani, featuring veteran actor and cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey, who played his maternal grandmother.

He had also collaborated with Ugandan rapper HAB on the 2016 song Sidda Mukyaalo.