New Delhi, Nov 7 (IANS): Ex-'Bigg Boss 15' contestant Donal Bisht has opened up on her Telugu film debut with 'Kumbhakarna'. The film was earlier called 'Dare To Sleep'.

The actress spoke about the challenges she faced in learning the Telugu language. Elaborating on the same, she said: "So, the name has been changed to 'Kumbhakarna' now from 'Dare To Sleep'. South Indian cinema is doing really well these days, so it is very exciting to be a part of it. I am playing a different character in the movie and cannot reveal much about it now. But for sure the audience will see me in a completely new avatar."

The 28-year-old actress finds learning a new language to work in regional cinema quite a challenging task.

She said: "Southern languages I never knew before and I don't even have a friend from South India (who could help me with the language). I was not at all familiar with the language. But when I went there and I liked the script, I took it up. I really wanted to learn Telugu and attended a number of workshops. So, I delivered dialogues in Telugu only. It's now being dubbed in Hindi as well and I am quite occupied with the dubbing process."

She shared a hilarious moment with IANS from the time when she started to shoot for the film: "When I began shooting for the film and went for the meeting, everybody around me was talking in Telugu. I used to stare at them and try to understand what they were saying. But this used to make everyone conscious as to why she is staring at us and then slowly they realized that she wants to learn the language."

Furthermore, she also recalled essaying the character of a psychologist in the web series 'Tu Zakhm Hai'. Talking about playing the character of Kavya Grewal, a clinical psychologist, she said: "She's very soft from outside but from inside she is like a hard nut. She's very strong mentally and helps out people through her mental abilities. She understands people and helps them to get out from the pain that they are facing."

The actress went on to share: "The character is facing Stockholm Syndrome. It talks about how a captive or a hostage falls in love with her captor. The character is very challenging, very interesting to play, because its graph has a lot of ups and downs."

Donal further mentioned that she derives her strength from playing challenging roles, "I loved taking the challenge and showing it in front of the audience and they are loving it too. So, I am happy with the response I am getting for my work and hope to get the same in future."