Australian drama living in “a time capsule” says axed actor
Former Neighbours actor Sachin Joab has hit out at the axing of an Indian family as a backwards step for multiculturalism.
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Former Neighbours actor Sachin Joab has labelled the axing of an Indian family as a backwards step for multiculturalism and says Australian dramas are living in a time capsule.
The actor, who played Ajay as part of a Kapoor family introduced to increase cultural diversity and all of whom departed the ELEVEN soap earlier this year.
He told UK website Digital Spy the family was introduced by former producer Susan Bower but written out under her successor Richard Jasek.
“Internationally there was a lot of positive feedback, in particular from the UK and other places in Europe. Given that the show is made in Australia, it’s kind of ironic that there was some negativity which was thrown at us over here. We did have some positive feedback too, but generally speaking, there were a lot of negative comments which came our way,” said Joab.
“That frustrated all of us and we would all speak about it, but I was probably the one who spoke publicly about it more often. I really hoped that by speaking out, some of the people who were being negative might feel differently.”
He admits he was shocked to be written out of the show.
“It was more of a shock to us knowing that it wasn’t just one multicultural actor who was being written out, it was every single multicultural full-time actor on the show – myself, Menik Gooneratne who played Priya, Coco-Jacinta Cherian who played Rani, and Alin Sumarwata who played Vanessa. All four of us were written out in the first year of our full-time contracts, which felt like a massive step backwards in terms of cultural diversity on the show.
“All four of us were hired by the previous producer Susan Bower, and it was the new producers who came in and decided to let us go in one shot, after just a year. We were all really hurt as we’d all been part of extremely heavy storylines and after working so hard on those, we really felt that we’d earned a second year on the show. Instead, they’ve now brought in another all-Caucasian family and returned Ramsay Street to all-white characters.
“For some reason, Australia is stuck in some sort of time capsule and usually when you do see non-white characters on screen, it’s only in non-fiction when it’s needed for factual reasons. For some reason when it’s fiction over here, the industry chooses to exclude non-whites and include whites only.
“It’s very unrealistic given that Australia is a very multicultural country. The two main places where the shows are made, Melbourne and Sydney, are two of the most multicultural but that really isn’t reflected on screen.”
Neighbours storylines currently see Asian-Australian Remy Hii playing a gay character, but in a guest arc and not as part of the resident cast.
Joab recently appeared alongside Hii in SBS’s Better Man also produced by FremantleMedia Australia and will next appear in a small role in Nine’s Fat Tony and Co..
“Afterwards, I’ll more than likely go to the States to see the opportunities over there, as it’s so hard to find work over here in Australia. The industry here is very small anyway, and as I’ve mentioned, it’s still stuck in a lot of old ways from an ethnic point of view. I have meetings set up in LA in September.”
Neighbours Executive producer Richard Jasek issued a statement to Digital Spy:
“It is the nature of a long running daily series that characters will come and go from time to time through the evolution of storylines. Characters’ departures from Neighbours are quite regular as part of the storytelling process and these changes are always for editorial reasons.
“We all miss Sachin – he was an exceptional actor and a great friend to all the cast and crew. The Kapoors were at the forefront of some memorable storylines which is testament to Sachin’s talent.”
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39 Responses
@bettestreep2008 it is quite unsurprising…in monday’s ratings post a user here just assumed timomatic was not australian due to his african heritage. i disagree with your points about the block/masterchef. masterchef has been very successful for years and have had popular minority contestants like pow and adam. it’s the tired format that is not clicking with viewers.
I thought I saw an interview with Remy Hii where he said he had become a regular cast member.
I would love to see not just more Asian & European but Indigenous characters as well. It is unbelievable that a town like Summer Bay would not have Indigenous residents & that should be portrayed.
Even NZ has a more racially representative cast in its shows.
Time for Aussie TV to be more representative.
The kapoors were boring and didn’t have much chemistry so glad they are gone but ill miss Vanessa…
Meh. They were hired by one EP who had ideas for them, they left and found themselves with an EP who wanted to go in a different direction. Happens all the time. Especially in soaps. Completely different to what happened to the Elijah character in H&A.
@bettestreep2008
slight error: My Kitchen Rules not House Rules for the Asian contestants. But agree whole heartedly
@Dodge I’m not sure how Emma Lung would describe herself but from wikipedia her father is reported to be half-chinese. I am unsure if this has any relevance to her character. 12% of Australian’s has Asian ancestry and this is obviously reflected in Australian television drama by…. ….. ….. um.. … um…
dont watch the show any more, but that statement from the EP doesnt seem quite right. yes it is the nature for full time charcters to come & go from the show, but not after less than 1 year, and not whole families at once. 3 years would be more believable and there are plenty of ways to write one family member out without the rest.
@bettestreep2008 Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I really liked the Kapoor family and was disappointed to see them axed. I’m also sad to be losing Lucas and Vanessa. It’s annoying to lose the adult characters. I have zero interest in the tedious, love life dominant storylines of Mason, Amber, Josh etc.
I agree with Sachin..
My personal opinion is that they (Neighbours)
need a lot of new writers (among other things!)
The characters could have been written so much better.
They need more characters who are not white!
If this is a ‘typical’ Australian street, then there are many different people & they should be shown as such!
And Alin (Vanessa) & Lucas (Scott Major) should not have been let go either! (just my opinion)
I read an interview with Scott Major who said they
were looking at “nuclear families”
(Which I had to look up. Two parents, with 2 or more children … Hello, isn’t that Lucas & Vanessa?)
Is this really surprising?
The Block got huge ratings because the contestants were mainly caucasian yuppies.
House Rules was a success because they made the Asian contestants into vile bitches and the caucasian ones lovely and sweet.
Masterchef has a very diverse ethnic range of contestants and is struggling badly. The Dubai episodes – Muslim country – should have rated much better but they sank.
Non-white people are being abused on public transport and the current election campaign is focusing on 3 word slogans like ‘stop the boats’.
No matter how much they try to spin it – Australia is a racist country and television executives are just giving the viewer what they want – White.
The real tragedy here is that they’re also axing all the age-appropriate crushes we had in our household. Without Ajay around I’m left to perve on young Mason, and without Vanessa and Priya my husband’s left ogling Amber!
On a serious note, I’m also pretty sorry to see these characters leave. I didn’t think they were bland at all. I’d take them over the Turners any day, especially Vanessa who added some serious sass to the street!
There are 32 homes in my street and every family is white. Multiculturalism must have passed us by.
@brucebanner what are you talking about there has been plenty of actors/actress who left the show have made successful careers
It surprised me that they were leaving, but at the same was glad to see the back of them (their characters) their story lines were in a bit of stale mate. I really couldn’t see a future for them
@Jake, so true. Nobody from Neighbours has ever had any kind of successful career after being on the show…. cue the crickets.
As for the axing, the characters just weren’t good ones. Rani was annoying, Priya had nowhere to go after her affair with Paul and reconciliation with Ajay. Ajay was just “there”. Vanessa is the shows biggest loss, no idea why they let Alin go.
They did also have the character Natasha on the show just recently for several years who was Serbian.
@Pertinax
They weren’t all written out as a family moving away. Priya Kapoor was killed off earlier this year, then Ajay and Rani were written out only a couple of months later. Now Vanessa Vallente will also soon be gone.
While it might not have been the producer’s intention to write out the characters because they are diverse, there is definitely a lack of diversity in the cast now.
They even often have actors from different backgrounds playing anglo characters. Why not take the opportunity and make some of these characters diverse too? For example Rebekah Elmaloglou who plays Terese could be Greek, Italian or Spanish.
In my opinion, our Australian TV really is not contemporary and hence boring!
Grow up Australia, get rid of those old aged decision makers! Furthermore, the investors have too much influence on decisions such as mentioned in David’s article. Most of the shareholders who spend money in such productions favour antiquated views due to their age (just research who invests money in our TV market!). As a result, we get Pleasantville for old-aged Australians.
No one seems to care if there could be more money to generate which could enable the economy in our TV sector to grow.
And like other people already said, ‘You can’t ignore the truth of our culture, open your eyes while walking through the streets’.
It’s a shame Vanessa is going, I really like her. I would have killed off Lucas and let her stay behind and introduce a family member who helps her raise the babies.
As for them all being removed at once, they are all created at once, part of the same family and storylines and it wouldn’t make sense to write half of them out.
And it was more likely to do with the UK audience than the Australian audience. Eleven pays halve what Channel 10 used to (which was less than Britain pays). Neighbours lives or dies on the UK audience these days, not the Australian one.
They tried something for a while to make the show more diverse and now they are trying something else. Why not give them credit for that?
Sure Sachin Joab is upset because he didn’t get a long-term gig out of it but making up wild conspiracy theories about ethnic purity is petty.
If you actually went to Vermont or most Eastern suburbs in Melbourne you would find it hard to visit a street where everyone is white. Neighbours is completely unrepresentative. At least Home and Away is a country town. It’s more likely to be predominantly white.
Consider yourself fortune to be disassociated with with program – Neighbours will only bring you down…..
I’m glad he’s said this. Isn’t Wonderland all white as well?
I read this interview the other day. Was very shocked to find out that all the multicultural actors were written out of the show and didn’t leave by choice. Ajay and Vanessa were two of the show’s best characters. Much better than the bland Turner family.
There should be more cultural diversity on TV but I’d say Neighbours was in a pretty impossible position here. The characters obviously weren’t working and they seem to have axed lots of people this year, not just them.
Perhaps the criticism should be better directed at other shows. At least Neighbours has a record for some diversity and they do a great job with their Greek gay character, Chris Pappas.