ITANAGAR: Meet Chum Darang, a 29-year-old actress from Arunachal Pradesh, who is all excited as she will be making her Bollywood debut in Junglee Production's 'Badhaai Do' (Congratulations), slated for release coming Friday.
The actress from Pasighat in East Siang district will be seen sharing screen space with Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar.
Chum of Mirsam Village near Pasighat, has won several beauty pageants like Miss AAPSU 2010.
She was one of the finalists of North East Diva 2014 and also held the title of Miss Tiara India International 2017.
"I wanted to act but I thought people would laugh if I told them about this," says Chum.
Besides acting, Chum Darang runs a cafe called 'Cafe Chu' at Pasighat.
Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar's 'Badhaai Do' is all set to make it to the big screen on Friday.
`Badhaai Do' is an unconventional story as it shows the journey of a lesbian woman and a gay man who marry each other to appease their parents.
Chum will be seen playing Bhumi Pednekar's love interest in the film.
Though Chum is thrilled about this opportunity, she says that Bollywood was never the plan.
She originally planned to run a cafe in her hometown but decided to try her hand at acting.
The actress said her friends and family back home are as thrilled as she is 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 said.
Chum is one of a handful of Northeastern actors who have made it big in Bollywood.
The best-known one is Danny Denzongpa from Sikkim who acted in films like 'Agneepath', 'Kalicharan' and 'Burning Train'.
Among others were Assam's Adil Hussian for his role in 'Life of Pi' and 'Reluctant fundamentalist', Lin Laishram from Manipur who starred in 'Rangoon' and 'Life of Pi' and T hangjam Biju Singh also from Manipur who acted in 'Mary Kom' and 'Shivaay'.
"I have learned to be hardworking from Bhumi and Rajkummar," Chum said.
Sharing the screen with actors like Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar, who have been appreciated for the kind of roles they play, has been an 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. The respect they have for other actors on set was another thing that I learned from them," she said.