Exclusive! Class actor Chandan K. Anand on scenes of drug use in Netflix show: Those who are doing it, are not happy

On February 3, Netflix's young adult web series "Class," which is an adaptation of the hugely popular Spanish series "Elite," premiered. Gurfateh Pirzada, Anjali Sivaraman, Ayesha Kanga, Chayan Chopra, Chintan Rachchh, Cwaayal Singh, Madhyama Segal, Moses Koul, Naina Bhan, Piyush Khati, and Zeyn Shaw are among the show's vibrant, young ensemble cast members.

The drama's business tycoon is played by actor Chandan K Anand, who is well known for his roles in various TV shows and movies, including Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl and Imtiaz Ali's Love Aaj Kal. The show Class is directed by Ashim Ahluwalia.

The actor spoke candidly about how the show differs from previous teen dramas and how he prepared for his part in an interview with OTTplay. Excerpts from the interview:

Speaking about how he got into the character of Suraj Ahuja in the show, Chandan said, "Well, when the brief of the character was given to me, I was convinced that I would be doing this. My first reason for doing the show was Ashim Ahluwalia, the director of the show. Secondly, when the brief was given to me, I realised that he is the head of the entire or whatever system and the society we are showing in the show Class. So yeah, that power was given to this character, Suraj Ahuja, and I felt that there will be scope of performance in it so eventually when it came and I went through it, it wasn’t that tough for me because I have portrayed negative characters before also. But it was a bit challenging because the performance had to be very subtle. He cannot be very aggressive, very loud, so certainly I had to give out the power, the cruelty and the negativity of Suraj Ahuja and I am happy that the kind of response I am getting is really good. People are praising about my performance because personally I am totally opposite to what Suraj Ahuja is."

Further when asked the actor about the continuous usage of drugs and how it might influence audience, the actor said, "Yes, in the show, the use of drugs and the influence of it is there, and Cinema very well the influence the audiences' mindset but if we just see in the show, the drugs are being used, but if you view it in a perspective that those who are doing it, those who are into the drugs are those who are into darker side of the life and they are not happy. Their relationships are very complicated emotionally and to just balance out their life they need drugs. So, if we just see from that point of view, audiences should take it in a negative manner that usage of drugs are not good for health and your emotional and mental being. So nowhere it's enhancing or influencing the audiences to just go buy drugs or make usage of it, everybody who use it is into the dark side of the life."

Class is currently streaming on Netflix.