Makers of Netflix's Class on the nuanced representation of present-day India

Love it like it or find it overloaded with themes layered like Medusarsquos tresses but you cannot miss the new series on Netflix ClassOn a weekday we sat down for a chat with showrunner Ashim Ahluwalia and screenplay writer Kersi Khambatta about the eightepisode murder mystery revolving around the lives of young adults in Delhi and it smoothly transitioned into a conversation about caste nuances class privilege and character representations An adaptation of the Spanish show Elite Class is a story of three students from poor backgrounds who get into an uberrich school on scholarship and their interaction with the other studentsAhluwalia says he never set out to adapt Elite nor had he watched it until requested to ldquoClass represents India right now I was keen to make something around rebellious teenagersrdquo says the maker of Miss Lovely ldquobecause I was one Even though the Spanish original is glossier I found the characters and situations intriguing and decided to stick with the plotline almost like a novel source and create a more realistic Indian versionrdquo Peppered with his own childhood experiences in Mumbai Ahluwalia says the screen depiction of rich kids and their parents is not far from realityClass an adaptation of Spanish show Elite is about youngadults in Delhi sorrounded by the dynamics of caste class religion sex drugs and dramaldquoIn a metropolisrdquo says the National awardwinning director ldquowe all come across spoiled wealthy children Some people might express reservations about showing children in such light Irsquod ask them to Google lsquoDelhi school scandalsrsquo Everything is out theremdashMMS scandals brats running people over and getting away with it even rape threats Perhaps our version is softerrdquo ldquoThere was no time for soft touch over thinking or over justification of character motivesrdquo interjects Khambatta ldquoWe wanted to hit hard get the message across keep the pace and all the fluff awayrdquoThe message is quite clear really ldquoCaste class religious and financial disparity is out there in the real world therersquos no denying itrdquo says Ahluwalia adding ldquoWe didnrsquot want to be preachy You can be pro one community and anti another pro gay or not but our audience can have their own point of view We are not telling anyone how to think just showing a multilayered world that existsrdquoKhambattarsquos filmography includes Being Cyrus and Finding Fannymdashboth with friend Homi Adajaniamdashwith them alternating the roles of director and writer ldquoYou open the newspaper and these issues caste religious and gender discrimination are in thererdquo is his perspective ldquoIt is what some Indians deal with every day and while most shows have only skirted the issues in an effort to be politically correct we wanted to hold up a mirror to societyrdquo Discarding the accepted pattern of a onetheme show the makers say theirs isnrsquot about ldquohomophobia Islamophobia Dalit rights etc but just about a bunch of kids and what they deal with every dayrdquo Itrsquos the several Indias within one IndiaKersi Khambatta writerdirectorAnd while Khambatta is less hopeful about change Ahluwalia believes the good and bad coexist ldquoThe fact that we have such a show runningrdquo he points out ldquoand that conversations around caste and religion can take place is encouraging in itself I donrsquot think this would have been possible 20 years agordquoJoking about the realism of their characters Ahluwalia says that a number of his acquaintances have wondered whether the characters or situations are based on them He laughs it off ldquoThe original show did not have the parent anglerdquo he says ldquoI introduced it considering that if the children are this wild what would the parents be like Many viewers have appreciated this aspectrdquo Both makers are aware of the responsibility of how sex is shown on screen and the role social media plays ldquoIn Indiardquo says Ahluwalia ldquomost works depicting sexuality are voyeuristic The same goes for some western shows where people fast forward to the scenes of nudity sex and skin We wanted to deal with sexuality through the eyes of the characters and the narrative Teens experiment and grow through such acts into adults but we didnrsquot want to exploit these to grab eyeballsrdquoKhambatta has the last word ldquoThe younger generation is all about the Internet their acceptance in society and insecurities are all driven online The Internet has given people a voice beyond control Social media explosion should reflect in every show now because it is a part of all our lives and more so for teens who practically live online for most of their waking hoursrdquoWatch Netflixrsquos show Class creators on representing all sides of IndiatodayAlso ReadHow pastels are redefining the traditional narrative for Indian brides