Is Hampton International a Real School?

Is Hampton International, the school in the Netflix Indian thriller Class, a real school? We answer that question and explain what Class is about. 

Class is a new show about a group of teenagers trying to make their way through school for the rich and wealthy. It’s an adaptation of the popular Spanish show Elite, which has a very similar premise but is geared toward an Indian audience and culture.

Reviews of the first season have been mostly positive, with Ready Steady Cut describing the show as “just as binge-worthy” as its predecessor, and The Times of India said it’s a “bold and intriguing murder mystery.” But the thing that audiences want to know about the show is if the school that the children attend, Hampton International, is real or fictional.

What is the Indian Netflix series Class about?

Class is an Indian adaptation of the thriller Elite, that follows three students, Dheeraj, Saba, and Balli as they are from a poor neighborhood and get scholarships to join an exclusive high school for the Delhi elite, where they’re treated with a strong dislike from the existing richer students and even the staff.

But this show is more than a fish out of water tale, it also has a darker undercurrent. Secrets and rumors lead to one of the students getting murdered, and the rest of the season is devoted to finding the killer. The show also puts an emphasis on what happens outside of school too, and the murder pits everyone against each other.

It follows a similar plotline to the 2018 show Elite, which is a Spanish show that sees students from a poorer background get into a private school and be viewed with disdain. But there is a strong focus on the caste system in India, along with religious elements.

The show also features more sex, drugs, and unhealthy use of social media, than Elite. One of the directors, Ashim Ahluwalia explained in an interview with Deadline, “Europe has to deal with all these laws and regulations, but in India, you’re in a culture where if you have money you can buy your way out of anything.”

Is Hampton International a Real School in Delhi?

The school that all of the children attend in the Netflix Indian series Class is called Hampton International, and it’s meant to be located in Delhi. The school itself isn’t real, it is instead something that was made up for the show, so it is fictional.

There is a Hampton International in Pak Kret in Thailand, but that’s a family-owned nursery rather than a high school for the upper echelons of society. In the same interview with Deadline, Ahluwalia explained that “the reason I wanted to set it in Delhi is because the gap between the haves and the have-nots is just so massive and very different from Mumbai in that it’s geographically separated.”

Continuing, he said “in Mumbai, everyone kind of rubs along next to each other. I went to a fancy school but it wasn’t a patch on some of these wealthy schools in Delhi where the kids are coming to class with bodyguards.”