Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist and first-term member of the New York State Assembly, won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City on July 1 with 56 percent of the vote, causing a significant political upset.
With the aid of culturally relevant multilingual films, Mamdani’s grassroots campaign was able to mobilize a large, frequently disregarded coalition of working-class and immigrant voters throughout the city.
In one widely shared video from June 4, Mamdani was seen imitating Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan as he explained ranked-choice voting to a group of Hindi/Urdu-speaking New Yorkers using mango lassi, a yoghurt-based beverage that is popular in South Asia.
With its Bollywood movie snippets and local allusions, the ad perfectly captured the innovative, inclusive approach that ultimately came to characterize his campaign.
