Chum Darang on her character in 'Badhaai Do' opposite Bhumi Pednekar

The Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar starrer Badhaai Do is all set to mark its release in theaters this Friday and as seen in the trailer already, the film tackles a very interesting concept. Touted to be the 'spiritual' sequel to Badhaai Ho, this film is about the male and female lead who decide to get married only to save themselves from the judgement and hurdles they would face otherwise - from what you ask? - because of the fact that they both are gay.

And while Rao's love interest isn't seen in the trailer, we do meet Pednekar's on-screen love interest and that character is played by actor Chum Darang. In a long interview with ETimes, Darang opened up on multiple things. She first talked about how Bollywood wasn't really the plan initially saying, “I wanted to act but I thought people would laugh if I told them about this. 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."

Darang hails from Paishat, Arunachal Pradesh as she also opened up on how Badhaai Do happened and why actors from the northeast are afraid of being typecast in certain roles.

First talking about how it happened, she said, “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."

Talking about working with Rao and Pednekar, she said, “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."

Finally concluding on how 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."