Ranjeet Chitrakaar, who is riding high on the success of Main Monica (MM), is willing to create further fascinating content. In fact, a second season of the show is in the works. The author and producer opened up about his journey thus far as well as MM’s success and the future plans for his production company Creative Play.
He says, “The USP of Main Monica, he claims, is that it is a realistic, spontaneous, and reactive story, peppered with humour based on everyday foolish circumstances that anybody can relate to, as well as everyday plain and direct dialogues. Also, the screenplay is non-linear and broken, which keeps you on the edge of your seat. It also includes all the necessary elements for a major blockbuster, including murder, kidnapping, ransom, chase, songs, comedy, and drama. And perhaps most important of all is how simply the story is told.”
Main Monica series:
Given that word-of-mouth advertising is the primary method of promotion for the event, according to Ranjeet, it has been very well received. He comments, “Fans are particularly loving the character’s nuanced aspects and their scenes, he continues. They adore Rajveer, Lingapalli, Mangu, and Jasbir’s characters the most. We adore each character and the skill with which each actor has portrayed them. Every comment counts since it was made after a lot of effort and sacrifice.”
More such content is being developed by Creative Play. He admits, “Concept development and writing are at the heart of what we do, and we have some further concepts in genres that will be developed into series. We are also developing a sizable project in the fantasy-drama-comedy genre as well as stepping into the realm of feature films,”
Ranjeet reflects on the past and describes how and where it all began. “I was never good in school; I spent the majority of my time playing cricket as a kid. I’m referring to a time when Mumbai was still known as Bombay and had open spaces, playgrounds, and just Doordarshan as a television source. Every man and woman passing by the area knew whose kid you were. My mother’s worst nightmare was for me in class. But, my older sister was the intelligent child in the family.”
Main Monica Filmmaker Ranjeet Chitrakaar:
He further adds, “Being up in a Sikh family and speaking Punjabi at home helped me have a solid command of the language. When I was a child, my parents never put any pressure on me to follow a particular course of action. In the 1970s and 1980s, my father, an incredible artist and top publicity designer of the era, created posters for all the big production companies, including Yash Raj, the Johars, and the Kapoors. Our home was constantly filled with the sounds of classic Hindi cinema music and discussions of Bollywood because my mum and dad are both devoted moviegoers. I think my love of art was ingrained in me from an early age through my father’s enthusiasm for storytelling and painting.”
Ranjeet also says, “My early years were spent in Mulund, a modest neighbourhood on Bombay’s main railway line. Our house was in a camp for refugees in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park’s foothills. What more could a child ask for when his backyard is a national park? I enjoyed hiking and would frequently take a bath in Tulsi Lake after ascending hills while daydreaming. Also, I became calm, shy, and a daydreamer thanks to sports, nature, and animals. I was a better-than-average student who always studied on the fly. I also never had to retake a test.”
Main Monica Exclusive:
He reminisces, “One learns a lot about oneself after reflecting on their life’s path, and during that process. I remembered that I like writing essays as a child and that, when I was younger, my favourite activity was to sit with my dad over beverages and discuss stories and characters until it was practically morning. That’s how narrative entrenched itself in me.” Ranjeet began working at a young age. When I asked a senior for a summer job, he was a college student.
The filmmaker confesses, “Production Assistant (PA), a title that comes just beyond spot-dada, was my first position. As my first supervisor taught me, “No… it can’t be done,” nothing is impossible and there is no right or wrong answer. After that, I switched between broadcast channels. I met Paromita Ganguly and Amber Wasi in 2014 while serving as the creative director at Cinema Now. We were able to laugh together and never got tired of one another. We became friends and that assisted in taking the major step of abandoning our jobs and pushing ourselves into the great ocean with Creative Play.”
Ranjeet Chitrakaar concludes:
He shares, “We became your lofty expectations’ slaves (laughs). Over the first few years, we created short-form material for channels like Food Food, TLC, Colors, Star Plus, and Star Gold. In addition to producing branded commercials and shows for companies including Quaker, Tropicana, Glenmark, Pepsi, and Mahindra, we also created Zee Theatre and a UK-based OTT platform called Lebara Play. We had begun turning Main Monica into a web series in 2015. Following years of writing and creating characters and their worlds, the series was ultimately given the green light by Amazon Prime in 2018. In cooperation with Arre Studios, we completed everything by 2022, including scripting, casting, and filming.”
2023 has gotten off to a good start because of MM’s accomplishments. “The objective has never changed. I want to have fun and prevent my work from becoming monotonous and boring. I enjoy producing quality cinema and writing true stories that are motivated by true events and real people. We are confident that the ideas being cooked up in the warehouse will appeal to viewers based on the reaction we received for Main Monica. The storylines are currently being polished and defined in response to the shifting customer tastes, and they will be released soon,” he smiles and concludes.
