“Delighted to see viewers have appreciated my acting in the role of Manju,” Kumud Merani

Kumud Merani is a multi-award winning journalist and broadcaster and Australia Day Ambassador. Her name is synonymous with TV, Radio and Stage. Kumud has been the doyen of Indian media in Australia for more than three decades. She has been one of India’s first TV News Presenters and TV anchor with Mumbai Doordarshan.

Kumud has thrice been the winner of the NSW Premier’s multi-cultural media awards for her contribution to Sub-Continental Art and Culture and Radio Documentaries. Sweet Sorrow, a documentary tracing the History of Fiji Indians won her the prestigious ABU (Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union) award and the opportunity for training at BBC London. Her Radio Documentary, The Story Untold drawing links between the Australian Indigenous community and ancient Indian tribes was a finalist at the New York Festival for radio programs and a winner of the then NSW Premier Mike Baird’s multi-cultural media award for best radio documentary. Kumud has also been bestowed with the NSW Parliament’s Multicultural Journalist of The Year Award 2014.

Stage production, playwriting and acting have been a passion for Kumud, and she has produced and acted in several Indian plays and written and acted in the English doco-drama, The Nautch Girls, exploring the life of the Indian dancing girls. Kumud has essayed the role of Binky aunty in the film UnIndian with Brett Lee directed by Anupam Sharma and has played the lead role in a short film, Spice Sisters written by Sheila Jayadev.

Kumud is a torch bearer of Indian Art and Culture in Australia and speaks seven languages.

As the season four of Five Bedrooms is streaming successfully on ParamountPlus Australia, Indus Age caught up with veteran Kumud Merani who plays a significant character, Manju, in the series that garnered much critical praise including a 2022 AACTA Awards nomination and a recent nomination for the ‘Most Outstanding Drama Series’ category at the 2023 Logies. Read on . . .

Interviewed by Nidhi Kumai

 Having worked as a venerable presenter to venturing into the beautiful world of acting, take us through your journey into the film/television world. Also, please tell us how did you come on board for Five Bedrooms?

Let me thank you and my listeners/audiences from decades for the affection and regard accorded to me. Truly, I had a successful radio and TV career with multiple awards bestowed on my work in Australia and Internationally for which I feel honoured and am very grateful to God. However, to me it’s the love of the audiences which means the world to me.

The journey has been long, most colourful and fulfilling. As I look back on my journey through the window of an imaginary train, I recall stations where we laughed a lot, halts that brought tears to my eyes, stations where I smiled through tears, but each phase has been scenic, interesting and a learning curve for me. As for my destination, I know not where it lies, I guess the answer lies with my destiny.

I have always been passionate about acting since I was five years old. Mum reminded me that I played the cat in Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle in Kindy. I acted throughout school and College. Farukh Sheikh and Shabana Azmi were my classmates at St Xavier’s and every year we’d put up a stage play.

As far as TV is concerned, that journey began exactly half a century ago! Bombay (Mumbai) Doordarshan started on 2^nd October 1972. Moving on to TV was a natural transition, I auditioned and got the lead role for the very first TV drama produced and screened in Mumbai. It was titled “Matrimonial Column”. Thereafter I did get offers for acting but my parents weren’t keen. Subsequently, I went on to become one of the pioneer TV News Presenters of Mumbai.

I loved my work but then came the big move to Australia and I thought I would have to pack my career up as I left the shores of the land of my birth. I was wrong! I went on to become one of the first Indian faces to present World News on SBS TV. I loved my job but moved on to SBS Radio where I found my niche as the Executive Producer of Hindi Programs.

I did write and act in Radio plays and wrote, produced, and acted in stage dramas in Sydney to a House Full. I played a small role in the film UnIndian. Thereafter I played the lead role in a short film called Spice Sisters, which became very popular. One of the writers of Five Bedrooms saw that film and I was asked if I’d like to audition for the series and of course I was thrilled. It began in 2019 and I did not dream that it will go on for four seasons and the audiences across the world would get addicted to the show. I am delighted to see that viewers have appreciated my acting in the role of Manju.

How difficult is acting compared to working as a Presenter/Executive Producer? Also, is there any advantage you feel you have since you are a part of the media industry for decades, example a better grip on diction or language, among others? 

From presenter to performer is a giant step ahead but truth to tell acting for me is easier. I’m just investing my time and the little talent that I have. I’ve never been to acting/drama school per se, but I observe people closely their body language, their tone and expressions get embedded in my mind. I guess one has to be an emotional person to be successful as an actor, by self-admission I am a very emotional person, I laugh a lot, feel hurt easily but no I don’t cry. It’s the unshed tears that vaporise in the spirit of the person and they are the most painful of them all.

As far as working as a renowned Presenter/Executive Producer, I enjoyed every single day of the 35 years in the job. It does entail a lot of hard work and homework, trying to find interesting talents for interviews, presenting a balanced News Bulletin every single day and now with the exponential growth of digitalisation one must podcast, broadcast, write short articles and upload FB and Twitter. Yes, I enjoyed it and met some wonderful people. Acting however is my passion, it is also an escape from reality when you get under the skin of a character.

As far as grip over the language and diction is concerned, yes, having been a Radio and TV presenter it helped me a lot, in my early Doordarshan days we were strongly pulled up for diction and tonal quality. Besides that, I have also been trained at BBC London for News Presentation and Radio Drama. I’m very particular about diction, be it Hindi, English, Urdu or any other language.

Tell us more about your character ‘Manju’ in the series, and also if there is any trait of the character that you relate with yourself. 

This question of yours hits the nail on the head. Thanks to the writers Michael Lucas, Christine Bartlett and Mithila Gupta, the character of Manju Sethi is most interesting and very multi-faceted. You love her, you can hate her, but you cannot ignore her. The development of Manju Sethi’s character over the four seasons has been amazing. Manju is very confident, self-assured, outspoken, she calls a spade a shovel, never believes in mincing her words. She is vain but hard working, brave in the face of adversity but above all her son Harpreet (Harry) means the world to her. She loves cooking and feeding people; she is a domineering mother but has a heart of gold. Manju can be brusque to the point of being rude but will leave no stone unturned for her son’s happiness. She worked very hard to get her son to become a doctor.

OH my God, there are so many shades to Manju’s character! Yes, some traits are very much like me in real life. The love and protective instinct for the children, the love for cooking and feeding people. I am resilient and confident, also like pursuing my goals with steadfast determination. That’s where the similarity ends. I can never be brusque with people or domineering, these particular traits in the character of Manju were a catharsis for me.

Tell us more about your other projects.

I am getting feelers for acting roles but can’t talk about it presently. I write a lot for a very popular and disciplined  FB page called Old Bombay. I’m planning a theatrical but don’t want it to clash with my shooting dates when the projects get finalised.

Last but not the least, what do you have to say to our readers about Five Bedrooms?

I would like to state that Five Bedrooms is an Australian TV series at it’s best. The writers have outdone themselves with the wit, the tears, the surprises and twists in the narrative, and the complexities of the five main characters that viewers can relate to. The characters are not all paragons of virtue but possess the flaws and virtues that all of us have.

The chemistry between all the actors has been terrific and I must say I was made to feel most welcome, comfortable, and appreciated. Good actors ignite a creative chemistry in each other.

The directors and crew were absolutely the best. What makes this series stand out is the inclusivity and diversity of the characters. The festival of Diwali in Season 2 is something worth watching. In fact, I would suggest your readers to watch all the four seasons on Paramount Plus. Five Bedrooms is a series for which everything goes in the superlatives, little wonder then that it has been nominated for the Logies 2023 as the most outstanding drama series.