Class actress Naina Bhan on “fear of offending conservative Indians” and the show’s racy content: “You look at what’s happening with other projects…”

During India Today’s secret meeting on Saturday, actor Chintan Rachchh, Kwayal Singh, Gufateh Pirzada, Moses Koul, Naina Bhan and Zeyn Shaw get together to talk about their experiences on the show, each of them’s first major acting project. Zeyn talked about his difficulty digging into the angry side of his character, Vir Ahuja, while Cwaayal talked about the “busy” mentality he shared with his character Balli, and whether he felt like an outsider, from a second-tier city himself.

Naina was asked if she was worried about going into the show, fearing that it might offend a certain segment of the audience, namely “conservative Indians”, with its provocative subject matter. In recent months, several major Bollywood projects have come under fire from groups that offend them. She admits everyone is scared and says the time is ripe for an Indian remake of Elite “because there’s so much to talk about”. She continued, “When I saw Ashim Ahluwalia’s name attached to the show, I had a gut feeling and I just knew (the show) was going to do it.”

She added, “Of course when you’re shooting footage, when you see what’s going on with other projects on social media, there’s a sense of anxiety and tension, and you want the message that we’re trying to get across to be so authentic and honest. Perceived correctly. Everyone came to the project very honestly and really tried to hold a mirror without making any judgments.” She said that because of the variety of characters, audiences can find their own entry point. The show never took a didactic tone, Moses said, but instead showed the world through a “suspended reality.”

Class released on Netflix on February 3 and was adapted by filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia, also starring Anjali Sivaraman, Ayesha Kanga and Madhyama Segal.