She will be seen playing Bhumi Pednekar’s love interest in Junglee Pictures’ Badhaai Do and though Chum Darang is thrilled about this opportunity, she says that Bollywood was never the plan. “I wanted to act, but I thought people would laugh if I told them about this,” says Chum, who hails from Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh. She originally planned to run a café in her hometown, but decided to try her hand at acting.

The actress, who is managed by Times Talent, shares that her friends and family back home are as thrilled as her about the film. “We don’t have theatres in my hometown so they are planning to go to Assam and will be travelling for three hours to see me on the big screen,” she shares. In a chat with us, Chum talks about how Badhaai Do happened and why actors from the northeast are afraid of being typecast in certain roles.

Chum is currently enjoying the phenomenal response that the fim’s trailer has got. “Life before Badhaai Do was normal and right now, I am getting a lot of attention and I am thrilled. It feels like my life is changing, it is going towards a beautiful journey.”

She says that though she wanted to act, she never considered it seriously. “I have taken part in a few pageants, but have not really done any modelling assignments. I come from a small town and if I had told anyone that I wanted to be an actor, they would have laughed. We watch TV and films, but we don’t think about joining the industry, especially in small towns like mine. I thought I had it in me, but I never told anyone that I wanted to act. Three years back, I also started running my café, so sticking to that was the original plan. I had thought of giving this (acting) a try and it worked,” she shares.

Sharing the screen with actors like Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar, who have been appreciated for the kind of roles they play, has been exciting as well as a learning experience for Chum. “They both are so down to earth and work really hard. I know they are experienced, they know so much but during the shoot, they sat down, listened to the director and worked accordingly. I learnt to be hardworking and grounded from them, the respect they have for other actors on set was another thing that I learnt from them,” she says.

Chum accepts that it has been challenging to play Bhumi’s love interest in the film but says that she had no inhibitions about the character. “I saw this casting ad on FB and I randomly texted the team and went for my auditions and it just happened. The character that I am playing, she is such a fun girl and the tag of playing Bhumi’s love interest did not really bother me. It was a challenge to play a role like that but I had no inhibitions. I listened to my director (Harshavardhan Kulkarni) and understood what the team wanted. And I would like to believe that I completed this challenge well,” she adds.

The actress shares that before Badhaai Do, she was also offered roles that stereotyped actors from the northeast. “I was offered such roles, like that of a spa employee, and I was scared that if I agreed to do them, I would be typecast. And this is what actors from the northeast fear. Not just in movies, but in day-to-day life as well, things are not easy. When I was called for my audition for Badhaai Do and this was in March 2020, on my way to the venue, two boys shouted ‘corona’ at me and I started crying. For my audition, I had to do a scene that required me to shout and I could actually do it really well because of that incident. Incidents like this are disheartening, but I also think that things are changing now,” she shares.

She adds that movie crews and producers should be more accepting of people from diverse backgrounds to have an inclusive system in place. “We are a diverse country, film crews, TV teams should include people from all backgrounds. Actors from different regions should be given chance, that’s how people will also become more accepting. I think Badhaai Do might be a game changer in that aspect,” says Chum.