Zohran Mamdani, son of filmmaker Mira Nair, has clinched the Democratic nomination to run for the mayor of New York City. But did you know that as a teenager, he had convinced his mother to turn down an offer to direct a Harry Potter film and helm The Namesake instead?
In an interview with Vir Sanghvi at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2018, Nair had opened up about how she was considered to direct the fifth instalment in the Harry Potter franchise, Order of the Phoenix, but she turned it down after her son Mamdani changed her mind.
“I turned down the offer as I was deep into directing Vanity Fair. I lost my mother-in-law who was like a mother due to medical malpractice in New York,” the 67-year-old filmmaker said.
“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,” she added.
Mira was busy filming for an adaptation of William Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair back in 2003. However, weeks before she left for India, she received news of the death of her mother-in-law, Kulsoom Alibhai, whom she fondly called Ammy, while she was on a visit to New York for medical treatment.
As a teenager, Mamdani was a huge Potterhead as the books were the ones that introduced him to reading. Since the books meant a lot to her son, Mira faced a dilemma about whether to direct the film adaptation of the book that means a lot to her or the one that her son would have enjoyed watching.
“I asked my 14-year-old son about it. He told me there are many good directors who can make Harry Potter, but there is only one director who can make Namesake,” she further said.
Mira then went on to direct The Namesake, which emerged as one of the most critically-acclaimed book-to-movie adaptations ever.
Based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel of the same name, The Namesake follows the journey of Gogol Ganguli, the son of Bengali immigrants Ashoke (Irrfan Khan) and Ashima (Tabu) in America, as he struggles to find his identity between the two varied cultures.
Mamdani not only convinced his mother to direct The Namesake, but also to cast Kal Penn in the role of Gogol as he was a huge fan of the actor’s 2004 stoner flick Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. He would ask Mira every day to consider Penn for the role.
Mira didn’t put much thought into it until Penn wrote a letter to her. “I am an actor because of your Mississippi Masala. I was 8 years old when I saw it in a New Jersey mall, and I realized people on screen could look like me,” the letter read.
Although he didn’t follow in the footsteps of his mother, Mamdani always loved music. Once known by his moniker ‘Young Cardamom’, Mamdani, a hip-hop enthusiast, had collaborated with Ugandan rapper HAB on the 2016 song Sidda Mukyaalo.
Under another moniker, ‘Mr. Cardamom’, Mamdani released another track Nani, featuring veteran actor and cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey, who played his maternal grandmother in the music video.
Mamdani, now 33 years old, ran a filmy campaign for the primaries, inspired by Bollywood, including Amitabh Bachchan’s Deewar. He also appealed to voters in Hindi and Bengali in different campaign videos about his vision.