How Bollywood Inspired Zohran Mamdani's Election Campaign

Zohran Mamdani's New York mayoral campaign posters were inspired by Bollywood, the designer behind the visuals has revealed. “Zohran mentioned Bollywood posters as an inspiration and even sent a couple over,” said Aneesh Bhoopathy, the man behind the campaign's design, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“There's definitely expressive typography in them, and you see a lot of yellow and red. We weren't going to shy away from looking different from the standard campaign font. We wanted to play into the identity of being South Asian.”

The campaign's design, featuring bold lettering, shadow effects, and a vivid color palette of royal blue, cranberry red, and marigold yellow, became one of the most striking visual identities in modern American politics. The centerpiece was a bold ‘ZOHRAN' in a custom serif font, inspired by the poster art of classic Hindi cinema.

“We started with a font called Boheld,” Bhoopathy explained. “It had this beautiful Z. Just off that Z alone, we tuned up the typeface until it was right for him and added the shadow.”

“We weren't going to shy away from looking different from the standard campaign font. And playing into the identity of being South Asian,” the designer said. 

Mamdani, who made history as New York City's first Muslim and youngest-ever mayor, is the son of Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani and acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair. She is known for classics like Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake.

When Mamdani declared victory on Tuesday, his campaign came full circle. As supporters erupted in cheers, the title track from the 2004 Bollywood movie Dhoom filled the room. Mamdani waved to the crowd, then walked over to embrace his wife, artist Rama Duwaji.

In June, after defeating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, Mamdani had leaned on Bollywood-inspired storytelling to reach immigrant and working-class voters.

In a campaign video, he reimagined Amitabh Bachchan's iconic monologue from Deewar (1975), “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, a bank balance, and a car. What do you have?”)

Before the original reply could play, the video cut to Mamdani himself, arms spread wide in Shah Rukh Khan's signature pose, smiling, “Aap,” (“I have you,”) looking at the camera.

Other campaign clips drew on Bollywood hits like Om Shanti Om and Karz, reworking famous film lines to explain ranked-choice voting or to stress on campaign promises.