‘Cliques You See in ‘Class’; It Is Like That in Some Schools’: Anjali Sivaraman

'Class', is the Indian adaptation of the Spanish series 'Elite'.

Chintan Rachchh, Madhyama Segal, Ashim Ahluwalia, and Anjali Sivaraman talk about Class.

(Photo Courtesy: The Quint)

After the success of the Spanish drama Elite, the show was adapted for an Indian audience by filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia. He, along with some of the cast members, Madhyama Segal, Anjali Sivaraman, and Chintan Rachchh talk about the show, their first auditions, how they prepared for their roles, and more.

Talking about playing Saba Manzoor, Segal says, "As a non-minority person playing a minority character, you will never really understand what a person goes through, no matter how much research you do because you don't have the same experiences."

Ashim Ahluwalia opens up about Class not being considered 'real', and says, "I think it was quite funny that when the show dropped, the first criticism was, 'Oh it's so unreal.'"

"So there are like 50-year-old playing college students and that's not unreal? That's what we've seen our entire lives. I am not interested in the unreal or fantasy. I'm not interested in making you feel safe. I want to make something that makes you think and for that you need to deal with things that are in the newspaper."

Ashim Ahluwalia, 'Class' creator

While both Segal and Sivaraman talk about the microaggressions prevalent in schools attended by affluent people, Sivaraman added, "The cliques that you saw in the show, it's a lot like that."

Rachchh talks about how he prepared for his role as Faruq Manzoor and also talks about the other characters in Class that he auditioned for, including one he doesn't think he can "pull off at all".

Watch the video for more.