Beyond the invisible walls of Erinsborough, Melbourne teems with a population with strong representation from countries like India, Pakistan, Sudan, Vietnam, Iraq, Greece and many more to boot. And yet, cultural diversity on Neighbours still remains laughably absent. In an interview with Digital Spy, actor Sachin Joab revealed that his time on Neighbours as part of the Kapoor family was characterised by a lot of negative feedback from local audiences.

The Kapoors had been introduced to Ramsay Street by previous producer Susan Bower after critics complained that an unofficial ‘White Australia’ policy was in place behind the scenes at Fremantle Media (Neighbours’ production company). But after Bower’s exit from the job, the decision was made to write the Kapoors out. They had been members of the cast for just a year. According to Joab, the new producers argued that the death of Priya Kapoor in an explosion meant there was now a lack of storylines for the husband and daughter she’d left behind. The Kapoors were sent to India to ‘visit a sick relative’ and promptly replaced with yet another Anglo family.

One-way street?

The Kapoors aren’t the first culturally diverse family to ‘fail to thrive’ in the homogenous Neighbours environment. After similar accusations of whitewashing plagued producers in the early ‘90s, the Lim family was introduced. Thwarted by a combination of terrible storylines (including one where the family was accused of eating one of the resident’s missing dog) and even worse acting, the Lims were packed up after a mere six weeks. In 2009, there came Korean exchange student Sunny Lee (played by Hany Lee, again after criticism that the show was too white). And Sunny Lee might have worked had she not also been written as one of the most annoying characters to grace the streets of Erinsborough.

Perhaps part of the problem with writing believable, complex ethnic characters lies in the whiteness of casting agencies and writers rooms. Writers may have the best of intentions, but when the majority of a show’s storyliners are white themselves, the construction of characters can become an exercise in racial stereotyping rather than diversity. Additionally, producers can decide to whitewash storylines or eradicate them altogether. In a 2012 feature in the Sydney Morning Herald, producer Penny Chapman explained that network executives “play it safe” when casting. “What they aren’t worried about is faces that aren’t white, I think what they’re nervous about is what faces that are not white will say.”