How Bollywood Cinema Influenced Zohran Mamdani's Groundbreaking New York Mayoral Campaign Design

Zohran Mamdani's distinctive New York mayoral campaign visuals drew inspiration from Bollywood cinema, according to the campaign's designer. "Zohran specifically mentioned Bollywood posters as inspiration and shared some examples," revealed Aneesh Bhoopathy, the creative mind behind the campaign's visual identity, during his conversation with The Hollywood Reporter.

"Bollywood posters feature expressive typography with frequent use of yellow and red. We deliberately chose to create something different from conventional campaign designs, embracing South Asian cultural elements in the process."

The campaign's visual identity became one of American politics' most memorable designs, featuring bold lettering, shadow effects, and a vibrant color scheme of royal blue, cranberry red, and marigold yellow. At its core was a striking 'ZOHRAN' rendered in a custom serif font, directly influenced by classic Hindi cinema poster art.

"We began with a typeface called Boheld," Bhoopathy explained. "It had this magnificent Z character. Using just that Z as our starting point, we refined the entire typeface until it perfectly suited him, then incorporated the shadow effect."

"We intentionally created something that stood apart from traditional campaign typography while celebrating South Asian identity," the designer added.

Mamdani, who made history by becoming New York City's youngest-ever mayor and first Muslim to hold the office, comes from notable lineage as the son of Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani and celebrated filmmaker Mira Nair, known for directing classics such as Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake.

His victory celebration on Tuesday brought his campaign full circle as the title track from 2004's Bollywood blockbuster Dhoom played while supporters cheered enthusiastically. Mamdani acknowledged the crowd before embracing his wife, artist Rama Duwaji.

Following his Democratic primary victory over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in June, Mamdani utilized Bollywood-inspired storytelling techniques to connect with immigrant and working-class voters.

One campaign video creatively reimagined Amitabh Bachchan's famous monologue from the 1975 film Deewar: "Aaj mere paas buildingein hai, property hai, bangla hai, bank balance hai, gaadi hai. Tumhare paas kya hai?" ("Today I have buildings, property, a bungalow, bank balance, and a car. What do you have?")

Before the original response could play, the video cut to Mamdani himself, assuming Shah Rukh Khan's iconic pose with arms outstretched, smiling while saying "Aap" ("I have you") directly to viewers.

Additional campaign materials incorporated references to other Bollywood favorites like Om Shanti Om and Karz, adapting well-known film dialogues to explain ranked-choice voting and emphasize campaign promises.