Chirag Paswan says his biggest takeaway from his brief acting career was friendship with Kangana Ranaut

Man of the moment Chirag Paswan, whose party, Lok Janshakti Party, won 19 out of 29 seats in the recent Bihar assembly elections, had once tried to make a career in acting in Bollywood. Chirag, son of late Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, had made his acting debut inthe 2014 film Miley Naa Miley Hum. The film failed miserably at the box office, making Paswan realise that he was not cut out for a career in Bollywood. However, he does credit the film for making him meet Kangana Ranaut, who he calls a ‘good friend’. Incidentally, Paswan and Ranajt are both now MP and members of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).

About the film Miley Naa Miley Hum

Paswan featured in a film called Miley Naa Miley Hum which had him playing an aspiring tennis player who falls in love with Anishka (Kangana), a model, against his parents' wishes. The movie also starred Kabir Bedi and Poonam Dhillon as his parents and also starred Sagarika Ghatge, Neeru Bajwa, Dilip Tahil, and Suresh Menon.

Miley Naa Miley Hum was a major flop at the box office. It could not even earn Rs 1 crore at the box office and had an extremely short run in the cinemas. It collected Rs 97 lakh globally and Rs 77 lakh domestically.

The film’s failure did not stop Kangana from signing more films. She went on to headline several prominent films and won three National Awards on the way.

Meanwhile, Chirag Paswan decided to quit the film industry, leave Mumbai, and return back to Bihar, his home.

Miley Naa Miley Hum Photograph: ()

‘I realised I am a disaster’

In an interview with the Indian Express, Paswan admitted that while filming the movie, he realised he was not cut out for this. Calling himself a ‘disaster’, Paswan said, “No one from my family has ever been to Bollywood. In a filmy way, I can say, ‘Meri saat pushto ka film se koi naata nai raha’. I was the first generation to try to venture into it. But, very soon, I realised that this was a disaster. Even before the country, I realised I was a disaster. I just came to know that I wasn’t made for this (acting).”

He added, “I have seen my father giving speeches, standing on the stage and talking impromptu and here they are giving me dialogues that are written, and I just have to say so much. They used to give a two-line dialogue to deliver, and I would speak for two pages. The makers would say, ‘you didn’t have to say so much.’ Having grown up seeing my dad speak impromptu, I assumed you could improvise dialogues and just say it. I used to do that but very soon I realised I can’t mug up dialogues and put on such heavy makeup.”

The former actor did admit that the film gave him a good friend like Kangana.

The two met again in the Parliament after winning in the last Lok Sabha elections. “Only good thing that happened to me after trying my luck in acting is that Kangana and I became really good friends. That’s one good thing we carried from that time. And I was really looking forward to meeting Kangana in the Parliament because the past three years, I was so busy in my own life that I had lost my connection with her.”

Chirag Paswan switched to politics

“I was working in Mumbai and I was pretty settled there. Had I given a few more years to Bollywood, I would have made a decent name for myself. The only reason I came to politics was that I had witnessed from close quarters how Biharis were treated in other parts of the country, how they were humiliated. The name Bihari itself was made into a gaali (cussword),” Chirag had said.

Ram Vilas Paswan died at the age of 74 in 2020. Chirag Paswan took over his father’s political party as the President of Lok Janshakti Party. But he held the position for less than a year.

He became an MP in 2014 from the constituency of Jamui, and is currently an MP from Hajipur.

His party won 19 of the 29 seats it contested in the assembly elections. The win comes after the party’s success in the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections, when it won all five parliamentary seats it contested.