Mira Nair was supposed to direct Harry Potter instead of The Namesake, but this person convinced her to turn down the offer, he is now...

Renowned filmmaker Mira Nair faced a creative crossroads when offered two contrasting projects–The Namesake starring Irrfan Khan and Tabu, and the fifth instalment of Harry Potter. However, she ultimately chose The Namesake, which emerged as one of the most critically acclaimed book adaptations ever. However, the dilemma must have been daunting as the turning down of Harry Potter was a risky decision. But his son Zohran Mamdani, who has recently clinched the Democratic nomination to run for the mayor of New York City, had come to the rescue. 

Why did Mira Nair turn down the Harry Potter offer?

In an old interview, Mira Nair recounted how Zohran convinced her to take up The Namesake over Harry Potter despite him being a Potterhead. The filmmaker revealed that she was busy filming an adaptation of William Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair back in 2003. Before leaving for India, she received death news of her mother-in-law's in-law that left her heartbroken. That’s when she read Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, that follows about the death of a parent. She then decided to make a film until an offer to direct Harry Potter came her way. 

Who convinced Mira to direct The Namesake?

Mira went on to reveal that her son Zohran, who was a teenager then, was a huge fan of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books. Considering her son’s love for Potterhead, she faced a dilemma about whether to adapt the book that meant a lot to her or the one that her son would have enjoyed watching. After which, she turned to Zohra for the final decision. “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 revealed in an interview with Vir Sanghvi at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2018.

Not only did Zohran convince Mira to direct The Namesake, but he also recommended actor Kal Penn for the role of Gogol in the movie. Mira recalled how she was not much in thought of casting Kal Penn until she received a letter from him.  “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 realised people on screen could look like me,” the letter read. 

For the context, The Namesake, based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel of the same name,  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.