New Delhi: About 60 years ago, she was born into a well-to-do family. Unfortunately, she got separated from her parents. Later, her marriage to a cook of late Bollywood star Feroz Khan took her from West Bengal to Mumbai. Then "cracks" in her family emerged and her struggle for livelihood increased.
Cut to 2019, today she is the Ranaghat station singer Ranu Mondal, an Internet sensation and a budding Bollywood singer.
"My life story is a very long one. A film can be made out of my life story. It will be a special one," Ranu told IANS from Mumbai where she just had a Facebook Live session with her growing fan base.
It was just a few weeks ago that a video featuring her, singing Lata Mangeshkar's evergreen song Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai on a railway platform, went viral online.
This caught the attention of many channels and music composers, including Himesh Reshammiya who offered to launch her in Bollywood as a playback singer. She has even recorded an episode for the reality show Superstar Singer.
She is getting a taste of stardom right now, but her life prior to the viral video was anything but a dreamy one.
READ | Himesh Reshammiya launches internet sensation Ranu Mondal to Bollywood
"I wasn't born on a footpath. I belonged to a well-to-do family but it was my destiny. I got separated from my parents when I was just six months old," she recalled.
Her grandmother was there by her side, but life wasn't easy.
"We had a house but you know you need people to maintain it. There were so many days of loneliness. I struggled a lot but always believed in God. I used to sing according to situations. It wasn't to get singing opportunities, just for the love of singing," said Ranu.