Zohran Mamdani made history when he won New York City’s mayoral election on Tuesday night, becoming the youngest mayor in over a century and the first Muslim to lead the city. But his mother had already carved her own path into the record books decades earlier. Mira Nair , 68, stands as one of the most accomplished independent filmmakers of her generation, a director who turned modest budgets into critical darlings and box office successes while refusing to compromise her artistic vision.

Nair’s breakthrough came in 1988 with Salaam Bombay! , a gritty portrayal of street children in Mumbai made for just $450,000 that grossed an estimated $7.4 million worldwide. The film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes, and became

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