'Ranu Mondal' biopic: Director confesses actors 'thought it was insulting to play Ranu Mondal'

Overnight viral sensation Ranu Mondal's disappearance from the spotlight was as sudden as her rise to fame. If you recall, her life changed drastically after a video of her's crooning a rendition of Lata Mangeshkar song, 'Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai' sitting on the pavement at Ranaghat station in Bengal went viral. The video was shared over a million times within a few days, making the railway singer a sensation. Post that, she started appearing in shows and that's when singer-music composer Himesh Reshammiya gave her a break with the song ‘Teri Meri Kahani’ for his film ‘Happy Hardy And Heer’ in 2020. Today, Ranu is back to Ranaghat, after enjoying a short but memorable stint in Mumbai. But the good news is, a film is being based on her and it will be titled ‘Miss Ranu Maria’ starring actress Eshika Dey. Recently, the director of the film, Hrishikesh Mondal, while speaking to a leading daily revealed he had a hard time finding an actress to play the singer. He said and I quote, 'I had Sudiptaa Chakraborty (a National award-winning actor) in mind. Then we decided to shoot the film in Hindi. Sudiptaa was keen but following some problem with dates, she backed out of the project. We had a number of actors in mind. However, some thought it was insulting to play Ranu Mondal. Finally, Eshika Dey agreed to play the part.' The makers settled on Eshika only after the scriptwriter of the film, contacted Eshika through Facebook, around July. At that time, the actress was recovering from surgery at a Mumbai hospital. The actress said she barely finished reading the script before she agreed to play the part. She was quoted as saying, 'The only reason I am thrilled to play the role is the numerous shades of the character. It’s like life. We are not totally good or totally bad. We all have our ups and downs. Ranu’s character is like that. She has challenged me to perform.'