Niranjan Mondal built 1.2 million followers with Bengali content and he’s blunt about why

New Delhi: Regional creators are steadily reshaping India’s digital landscape, bringing local languages, cultural nuance and everyday humour into the mainstream. 

Among them is West Bengal content creator Niranjan Mondal, known online as Laughtersane, whose blend of cosy, eerie and human storytelling resonates with over 1.2 million followers on Instagram.

In an exclusive conversation with Buzz In Content, Mondal spoke about creativity, cultural identity, brand pressures and the shift from reels to long-form acting.

Early in the interview, Mondal summarised his creative process with a line that has become part of his online persona: “Everything is content.” He said ideas come from small details rather than grand concepts. 

“Even if I shut my brain, in the back of my mind, there is someone who is always looking for content,” he said, adding that he does not rank or categorise material before producing it.

Mondal said that balancing growth, authenticity and collaborations comes down to one rule he follows “very strictly”: “Authenticity really matters… people want to see you.” With many creators using similar formats, he said, audiences stay only when the creator’s identity is clear.

For branded work, he first checks whether viewers will “still feel like they are watching me.” If a brief does not allow that, he added, “we can take a call on that politely,” noting that he aims to align with a brand’s requirements without having to “compromise my creativity.”

Discussing his decision to work primarily in Bengali, Mondal addressed a common misconception that creators outside Hindi or English cannot scale. He said many still assume regional content limits reach, but he disagrees: “Creativity has no language.” 

Audiences, he added, will make the effort if they value the work, “If you seek creativity, you’ll watch with subtitles.” For him, choosing a regional language is tied to identity rather than limitation. “It’s not that regional creators can’t make content in Hindi or English,” he said. “It’s just that they want to represent their cultural background.”

On humour, Mondal said he avoids jokes that stereotype people based on identity, accent or personal circumstances. His guiding principle is simple: “My mantra is that I want to joke with them. I don’t want to joke about them.” If a script crosses into a “grey zone”, he rewrites it. 

Inclusivity, he argued, is not something to claim as a badge but “a regular healthy practice,” especially as audiences increasingly hold creators accountable.

For new creators from small towns or regional backgrounds, his advice is to invest in patience and originality. “Trust me, it really matters because people want to see what you can create,” he said. He recalled a line from the conversation in Bengali, translated as, “If they want to watch others, they will. Why should they watch you?”,  to underscore the need to develop a distinct voice rather than imitate others.

The conversation also touched on his OTT debut in Birangana on Hoichoi, which surprised some of his followers. Mondal said he took the role purely because it spoke to him. “I didn’t choose Hoichoi. Hoichoi chose me,” he said. 

The experience, he noted, changed his understanding of craft. Long-form acting demanded a different discipline, he said, adding, “The acting I do to create a reel is something else.”

Ultimately, Mondal returned to what anchors his work: observation, patience and a sense of cultural honesty. Whether through his horror-comedy sketches or a future film role, he said his priority remains staying himself recognisably, both on and off camera.

Watch the full episode here: