New BOY in CLASS

Meet Piyush Khati, who plays the boy next door in Netflix’s Class. Isha Mayer in conversation

- Isha Mayer

 

”The story of Piyush Khati—you now know him as Dheeraj Kumar Valmiki from Netflix’s Class—is that of an ’80s Bollywood film. A boy from a small town struggles and makes it big in showbiz. Hailing from Ranikhet, Uttarakhand, Khati led a slow life waking up to the view of the Himalayas but soon left the chirping birds behind for a life in New Delhi.

National School of Drama didn’t work out as hoped, but mass communication and odd jobs kept Khati afloat. And then came the sweet part… The hard work paid off. “I moved to Mumbai and navigated my way as a commercial artist. From being a background actor to appearing in ads, my first successful audition landed me the web series Criminal Justice. Two years later, I appeared in Extraction with Chris Hemsworth, and after that, I was shortlisted for Class,” he fills us in.

HANDLING FAME