At 7 in the morning, before Kolkata has fully woken up, Aradhana Chatterjee is often already on the road, chasing a story.
Not the glamorous kind or the trending kind. The kind that many often ignore, away from the spotlight.
That is how she met 70-year-old Deepali Ghosh.
For 30 years, a resident of Howrah, Ghosh has run her small rice hotel after her husband’s death.
Aradhana posted a reel on her. The lady who cooks, cleans, shops and serves, all by herself, had barely five customers when the team found her. Her walls were smoke-stained, her utensils worn out, and her roof broken. At night, she slept alone inside the shop on a fragile piece of plywood.
“She reminded me of my grandparents. I came back home that day, and I felt very bad. Even if 10 people came to eat, she would not even be able to cook properly in that condition. That’s when we decided we had to do something,” said Aradhana. And within days, along with her team, they hired labourers and got the place renovated.
Aradhana is the face of ‘Stories by Aradhana’, an Instagram account that began as a simple attempt to tell untold stories. But she is not alone, behind the successful page is her partner Joydeep Sen.
Joydeep Sen, co-founder, strategy and partnerships and Aradhana Chatterjee, co-founder and creative director at Stories By Aradhana
The mind behind the account is Joydeep’s, who studied filmmaking at St. Xavier's College and later worked with different media houses. He now runs his own digital marketing company called Speaking Mirror. But Sen had always wanted to make video content.
“I wanted to start a YouTube channel right after college. Nobody supported the idea then. So I followed the safe route, did a job, and started a digital marketing agency. But the dream of making videos never died,” Joydeep recalled.
Aradhana’s journey was equally meandering. She started her career in modelling in college and even featured in a viral Pantaloons television commercial where she played the role of Puchki. But she did not see herself continuing in the industry.
“I was earning well, especially for a college girl. But I was not happy with the work culture. I was more interested in non-fiction. I can’t act. I was never interested in fiction,” said Aradhana.
Then she met Joydeep and both wanted to start an F&B business. Together, they started ‘Khana Khana Hai’, a food truck venture during the pandemic. But it failed. After months of uncertainty, the two took a leap of faith, and in January 2023, ‘Stories by Aradhana’ officially began.
There were no big investors or well-equipped studios. Just a camera, hours of research and relentless execution.
Aradhana started her career in modelling in college and even featured in a viral Pantaloons television commercial where she played the role of Puchki.
“In the beginning, she would go out in the heat, search for stories for 14 to 16 hours and sometimes come back with nothing. If we have achieved even one per cent today, it is because of her execution. Strategy on paper is nothing without work,” Joydeep said.
Slowly, their videos began to create a noticeable impact. They made a video on Sunil Pal, an artist in Golpark and his paintings sold out within a week. A struggling idol maker received thousands of orders after they featured him, and then came crowdfunding that paid for the medicines for the people they made videos about.
Joydeep said that they never started with the idea of asking people for money. “Our mentor told us that impact should not stop at visibility. If people trust you, they will support you.”
With Deepali Ghosh’s story, that trust was evident when viewers donated, and the team renovated her space. Neglected by her two sons, her medicines were arranged by other sponsors, and a safer kitchen was built.
“We don’t show everything. There is much we do quietly. And it is okay,” Aradhana stated.
Behind the viral reels, Aradhana and Joydeep have a team of researchers, editors and young interns. “We have expanded to Delhi and Mumbai, with dreams of covering every state in India,” said Joydeep. “From day one, we decided this would not be a one-person channel. It has to be a company. A community.”
Team Stories By Aradhana — (left to right) Bipplab Ghosh, Vishal Khan, Joydeep Sen, Aradhana Chatterjee, Nilendu Gharami, Abhijit Das and Harshit Pandey
Aradhana laughed when asked about family and friends, “Our families see the hard work and friends sometimes assume we are 'minting money'. The reality is different. There are days with 10 brand deals and days with just two. There are weeks of travel and 14-hour shoots.”
But for Aradhana, the biggest reward is when these people help call them with a heart full of gratitude. “When they call and say they are happy, that is enough. I don’t want to be an influencer. I don’t like parties. I don’t like attention.”