The first look of Eshika Dey as singer Ranu Mondal has been revealed. Cinestaan was the first English news site to break the news about the performer's biopic, Miss Ranu Maria, which is being directed by Bengali filmmaker Hrishikesh Mondal.
Ranu, a homeless woman who lived a hand-to-mouth existence, shot to stardom after gaining the attention of singer-producer Himesh Reshammiya who chanced upon a viral video of her belting a Lata Mangeshkar number at a railway station in 2019. He invited her to perform on his musical reality show Superstar Singer and gave her an opportunity to lend her vocals for his film Happy Hardy And Heer (2020).
Dey will be seen portraying Mondal at various junctures in life in the movie, according to pictures shared with us by Hrishikesh.
Speaking about the complex role Dey told Cinestaan, “I am playing her from 19 years to her present age [senior citizen]. She falls in love at 19 and then she is a married woman. She becomes an orchestra singer in her late 20s. We have also shown her singing a song at the railway station as a beggar. We tried all the looks in a single day, and portraying different ages was a challenge.”
Asked about the film’s status, the actress said, "The film will either go on the floors at the end of November or the start of December. I have started my homework. I went to Kolkata and met Ranu Ma at Ranaghat. I stayed there for few days. I got to see who she is really is."
Soon after Ranu became a household name, she got entangled in controversy owing to certain statements she had made and an incident with a fan.
But Dey said the singer was different from what social media would have you believe. “I found her a completely different person. She is not well. So I had to consult my psychologist friend Komolika Bhattacharya and do whatever she had asked me to. She started seeing me as a daughter and I started calling her Ranu Ma. I got to see who she is beyond the social media."