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More diversity as Indian family joins Neighbours

Long-running soap Neighbours will add a family with Indian and Sri Lankan heritage in one of the final moves by outgoing Producer Susan Bower.

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Long-running soap Neighbours will add a family with Indian and Sri Lankan heritage in one of the final moves by outgoing Producer Susan Bower.

The Kapoors are the first family to join the series since the Williams family arrived two years ago.

Local Councillor Ajay Kapoor (Sachin Joab) has been a regular guest since July, joined by wife Priya Kapoor (Menik Gooneratne) as principal of Erinsborough High in September.

In February their daughter Rani, played by newcomer Coco-Jacinta Cherin, will join them.

The ELEVEN soap has frequently been criticised for haveing too many Anglo-Saxon characters, but has previously had an Asian family before, if rather short-lived. Recently it added its first openly-gay male youth.

“I’m delighted by how the Kapoors have been introduced,” said Bower. “Viewers already know them because of their role in the community and link with other characters, and their cultural background is secondary.

“We have had many individual characters who have been representative of Australia’s diverse cultural landscape, however to have a family of Indian and Sri Lankan heritage join the neighbourhood, is very exciting.”

The Kapoors don’t get to live on Ramsay Street itself, appearing as part of the show’s extended Neighbours-hood, but it’s a positive step.

30 Responses

  1. I thnk its great and we have been introduced to the characters already except for the daughter. I thought they would move onto the street though.

    I cant believe comments that have been made about this though. Just reading an article on ninemen it disappoints me that we are in 2011 and people still have an issue with a no white family comng onto the show.

  2. At last some multi-racial casting on a Ten drama. But it has already been moved to a digital channel so while terrific it is not that brave. Ten have paid a heavy price by not being able to keep this show rating on its main channel. Perhaps it is because it has no equity or copyright interest in it but merely licences it very cheaply from Fremantle. Contrast its ratings performance with Home & Away.

    You’ll know Ten are serious about multi-racial casting when Offspring goes multi-racial. But suppose it is a start. Even our ABC has been very slow off the mark with multi-racial casting. East West 101 would sit happily there.

  3. Adding Indians as minority characters is kind of a strange choice, until you remember they’re a much bigger part of the UK population than in Australia, like the show itself.

  6. I like how Chris Pappas is half Greek and Tash Williams is half Serbian. Even Jared Rebecchi has mentioned Italian heritage although it has never actually been explored. No mention of Jade Mitchell’s heritage even though she obviously looks half Thai.

  7. I just hope they don’t go down the whole wow look how different they are angle. I think these characters should have this heritage and operate like any other character

  9. @Jaye
    Yes indeed, Neighbours has had a few Eurasian characters. Lou Carpenter had a Eurasian daughter Ling Mai, the result of a relationship with a girlfriend in Hong Kong.
    The Kinski kids, Katya, Rachel and Zeke were also Eurasian. Their father Alex was from Belarus heritage and their mother was from Tibet.

  10. @brisvegas
    Neighbours had a recurring character back in the 80s called Pete Baxter played by Aboriginal actor Tony Briggs, who was recently in The Slap. He played a friend of Mike Young (Guy Pearce). There have also been some Aboriginal guest characters too.
    Home & Away had Luke Carroll in a seven week stint.

  11. I suspect that Australia will be, if it isn’t already, predominantly white, asian, eurasian in the future. Why not have a mixed couple with a Eurasian child? Or did they do that plot line already?

  12. Well, it’s a step in the right direction but it’s a baby step since, altho’ natives of the Indian subcontinent are geographically Asian, racially they are Caucasian. And, as Brisvegas says, what about an Aboriginal family? So is it a case of “Brown is ok as long as it’s not too dark”?

    Asians now regularly appear in ads for alcohol among other things so it would seem that commercial television advertisers deem them sufficiently acceptable to their target audience. In these ads, there is usually one person of Asian appearance whenever there are 4 “mates” having a drink and a laugh. This is true for drinks as different as XXXX beer, Wild Turkey bourbon, and Jacob’s Creek wine. Contrast that with Aboriginals who only seem to get a look in for govt or social justice ads. You would be hard pressed to know that black people existed if you only watched Australian programs on commercial TV.

  17. That is great news!
    We were just saying the other day that, for such a “multi-cultural” country we have an offensive lack of ethnic diversity among the cast of most of our TV shows … it is all so “white”!

    Great to see the current gay storyline also, it is very well written!

  22. This is great news! Hopefully they become part of the show, rather than the “token” ethnic family… And I hope they last too! (though I must say Ajay and Priya look too young to have a grown daughter!)

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