‘Accused’: Chaneil Kular on his first lead role and growing up in a South Asian household

Actor Chaneil Kular, who rose to fame after playing a gay man named Anwar Bakshi in Netflix’s worldwide hit Sex Education, is excited about his first lead role in a new film, titled Accused.

In the pulse-pounding thriller on Netflix, the actor essays the powerful role of a young man who is falsely accused of being a terrorist

“After a young man is wrongly accused of a horrific crime on social media, violent vigilantes invade his family home – forcing him to fight for his life,” a synopsis of the film reads.

Speaking to a digital platform, Kular talked about playing a very different role in his first film and why it has always been important to him to take on a variety of roles as a South Asian.

“With marginalised actors, (the roles available) used to be relatively stereotypical – someone who is struggling with their British Asian identity and goes to India to find themselves, that kind of thing,” he said. “That's not a bad story, but I have been fortunate to do more nuanced roles, ones you would not expect to have been written for South Asians. It’s nice for actors to have more to play with. The toy box is bigger.”

Kular added that acting was not an obvious career choice for a boy who grew up in a South Asian household. However, he always knew he wanted to perform, though, he had no idea how to get there.

“When I was 13 years old, I literally went on WikiHow and searched ‘How to become an actor’. Maybe it was arrogance, maybe self-confidence, but I used to watch the Disney Channel and think, ‘I could do that’,” he said.

He revealed that his family is very supportive now. “My grandma hears that I'm getting these jobs and wants to know where she can watch things like Sex Education. I think she'd have a heart attack seeing my bare ass on TV,” Kular joked.

Accused is currently streaming on Netflix in the UK and Ireland.