When Zohran Mamdani wrapped up his New York mayoral win speech to 'Dhoom Machale' blasting on the speakers, it left people with a cocktail of emotions. Surprise and shock were perhaps the most palpable on social media. There were posts that asked 'racist losers' to 'cry more', as others equated Mamdani's win and Dhoom Machale to a perfect Bollywood movie "in real life". And then there were the others who went doing what X does best: digging through Mamdani's tweets for the best and the worst.
The Tweet From Four Years Ago
A tweet from 2021 stood out.
"dune machale dune machale dune," read Zohran Mamdani's tweet from November 2021. The tweet referred to the Denis Villeneuve-directed epic Hollywood movie Dune, starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson. Dune released in theatres on October 22, 2021, and Mamdani likely caught a screening in mid-November, after which he went to Twitter to express his feelings about the film. He went back to the popular millennial anthem from Bollywood, Dhoom Machale, to tweet about Dune. Bollywood over Hollywood, ok?
Mamdani's Mayoral Win Speech
Four years later, Zohran Mamdani's victory speech in New York had his same love for the title track of the 2004 Bollywood blockbuster Dhoom playing out loud as his supporters cheered along.
Mamdani, hand on his chest, walked off the stage to the chartbuster. Dhoom Machale worked as a captone of sorts, rounding off the 34-year-old's campaign that was influenced deeply by Bollywood references and iconography, and that famous Shah Rukh Khan pose that Mamdani struck more than once.
Mira, Mississippi, And Bollywood Masala
Bollywood has had a major influence on Zohran Mamdani's childhood and life. The New York mayor-elect's mother, after all, is famous Indian filmmaker Mira Nair. Nair is the director of movies like Mississippi Masala, Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding, and Kama Sutra: A Tale Of Love. Mira and her husband, Columbian professor Mahmood Mamdani, were both born in India before they moved to Uganda. Zohran was born in Uganda.
Such is Mamdani's love for Bollywood that for his campaign visuals, the brief was simple: Bollywood posters, among other things, were to serve as an inspiration for his main logo, revealed designer Aneesh Bhoopathy in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year.
Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan both inspired Zohran Mamdani's campaign. In one reel, Zohran used Amitabh Bachchan's famous "mere paas bangla hai, gaadi hai" dialogue from 1975's Deewar, and cut to him stretching his arms a la Shah Rukh Khan.
LMFAAOOO HE DID NOT JUST pic.twitter.com/VjbmbdCqmz
— prth (@paaarth319) November 5, 2025
From his campaign videos to posters, Bollywood has been a permanent fixture. As such, Dhoom Machale as the song that he walked offstage to, was only a fitting close to a mayoral campaign like Zohran's.
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