‘Being someone else is a thrill in itself’: Pranam Janney

Pranam Janney is a role model for all struggling actors with his ready wit, optimism and willingness to work hard. He talks about his experiences in Australia and overseas

Pranam Janney is undoubtedly a brave soul. Coming from a middle-class background, he admits that his passion for acting is not considered much of a profession by his family. However, he discovered his love of acting and being in front of a camera at an early age and has managed to follow it in spite of many diversions along the way.

He started off with acting in commercials and has since managed to get a few meaty roles. He recently acted in a supporting role for the film Smoke alongside Kym Jackson (Criminal Minds, Scooby Doo). He has been offered the lead role in Purchase, (pre-production, 2009) to be directed by Oscar Nicholson, DOP- Geoffrey Simpsons (Romulus: My Father).

He is positive about the developments in Australian media saying the new serials that are being produced here will not only give jobs to South Asian actors but technicians as well. He spoke of his first experiences while looking for an acting job in Australia and asks that those who are starting out be wary of conmen willing to squeeze your purse dry. Excerpts:


Just to get a background, what made you go into acting? Where are you based now?

I am very comfortable acting in front of a camera. The adrenalin rush of getting into character and being someone else is a thrill in itself. I was involved in theatre till I was 13 years old, but stopped after that due to a number of different reasons.
By chance, I got in front of the camera for an advertisement when I was 20 years old. I then realised what I had missing and so decided to pursue acting seriously. I was always interested in exploring new horizons and that is how I reached Australia as a student of electronic engineering when I was 22.

Tell us about your first experiences as an actor starting out.
One of my first commercial ventures was an advertisement for a South Indian newspaper called Maatrubhoomi. That was in India. In Australia, the first break was in a short film by Alex Cuttleback. It was a small venture but a nice experience for me as I got to understand the inner workings of the industry. This proved invaluable for me as I went about looking for a job. Being a stranger in a strange country, it’s difficult to know who’s who and what is happening where. This was a small inroad into that industry.

Can you tell me a bit more about your work in London and how you got there?
I travel for personal and work. Being a struggling actor, it’s hard to differentiate between work and personal life. I’m in India now for personal reasons but I keep meeting with producers and such people to keep networking. I was in London before I travelled to India and although I went there for personal reasons, I managed to meet a few people. I met Irfaan Khan’s manager which was nice. In that sense, while I am based in Sydney, I do travel around and make sure that I keep meeting people.

There are a lot of new Aussie dramas coming out now? Do you think South Asians could play a role here?
Absolutely. People from South Asians backgrounds are contributing to Australian society in numerous ways. Hence, I believe South Asians could play a role in future productions in various capacities (Production, cast, crew etc).

What is your advice to someone looking to enter this field in Australia? Would you suggest they move to London, New York etc?
For someone entering this field in Australia, my advice would be that they should believe in themselves, work hard and persevere. Perseverance and hard work always pays. I have already mentioned before that Australian film industry is not as big as some of the other film industries. Obviously, for someone looking to enter the film industry, a move to London/New York/Los Angeles will certainly boost their chances of landing a role. But a sincere advice from me would be to build a profile here in Australia and then try your luck elsewhere. You would have a better chance of landing a role that way.
Another word of caution: keep a look out for all those scammers who are looking to squeeze your purse dry.

What are the chances of someone from a South Asian background getting a good role in an Australian production?
Australian Film Industry is not as big as Hollywood or Bollywood and it predominantly requires actors with Caucasian looks. However, there are roles that do pop-up which require actors from an Indian background but these are very few and rare. In future, I see more productions in/from Australia involving actors from more diverse ethnic backgrounds.

I was called for an audition for Sea Patrol (an Aussie drama) but I could not join them on the set as I was in London at the time. So that was a lost opportunity.

I know of a few others. There is this friend of mine who is of Sri Lankan origin. He was doing quite well in Tamil movies. However, here he could only pick up roles of taxi-driver, security guy etc. Then one day after playing the role of a dead body in All Saints, he packed his bags and left for New York.


Do you think it’s going to get better in Australia and how does UK and the US compare?
I see a change but it’s very slow. I feel it is going to get better here. Maybe not in the next couple of years but I would say in the next say six-seven years, I hope to see a change.

It’s also got to do with the nature of the industry. In a year maybe there are castings for 100 roles and out of them five may be for actors of South Asian background. So that’s five percent. In the US or the UK, there will be a thousand roles up for audition and maybe only five per cent of that will be for a South Asians; that percentage is a substantial number.


Tell us some anecdotes from your early days
I had never been outside India till I was 22 and I had not been exposed to any other accents. It was hard to convince people that I could do anything as I did not speak like them. I decided to give myself some accent training.

I remember this one instance very clearly and it has stayed with me: There was a big Hollywood production that was casting about two years ago and they were interested in my profile. I was really excited as it was a Hollywood casting. I went to Fox Studios for the audition. The director wanted me to do a Hell's kitchen accent and I had no idea what it was at the time (Hell’s Kitchen is in the Bronx area of New York City). He told me I would be a Puerto Rican immigrant. I told him I could not do that accent so he told me to do whatever accent I could. I tried what I knew and they all fell about laughing like they had gone nuts.

That was a good lesson. I realised right away that I needed professional accent training. I went to the guy who taught accents to Hugh Jackson, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. He was really helpful but he told me that while he could convert an Australian accent to an American or English accent, he did not know what to do with the Indian tongue. While I can’t do an accent simultaneously, I can talk in almost any accent now if I’m given a script.

No trouble on my watch

Rakesh Raju talks about the unenviable job of making sure people have a good time and we get home safe after a night out

Rakesh Raju talks to Tanu about the unenviable job of making sure people have a good time and we get home safe after a night out

Story: “It’s a family tradition,” Rakesh Raju says. “One person in the family has to go into the police force, although my parents are farmers back home in Fiji.” So that is how Raj -- as he is known to all his friends – took the first step towards starting his own successful international security company.

Raj moved to New Zealand from Fiji and soon found a niche for himself in the force there. “They were short of officers and they were looking for someone to fill in the multicultural posts. They wanted people from different backgrounds to join the force and that’s where I came in,” he says.

He was in New Zealand for 9 years and that’s where he met his wife Anita. “She was an engineer and her profession was quite sought after in Australia.” Raj and family landed in Townsville, Queensland. “It was shock! There was nothing there. It’s a beautiful place. I thought I was back in Fiji but I loved it. It’s a tropical climate, warm all the time.”

Raj spent five years in Townsville where he worked with ATSIC or Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Commission (This was later scrapped by John Howard when he was Prime Minister) “I joined the ATSI C. Never knew much about Torres Straight Islanders but in Townsville there were just three Indian families,” Raj says laughing. There was one doctor from India, a Fiji-Indian lawyer from Brisbane and myself.

While Raj was working here, he kept thinking of ideas to do something different. That is when 9/11 happened. It actually worked in his favour as there was great demand for security at that stage. “When you work in the industry (police) you know about the gaps in the security arrangement. A lawyer friend of mine also saw the potential and we started the company together.”

He was doing alright in Townsville but the weather did not agree with his younger son Kaushik, 11, who was just six months at the time. “He got this fever which became very serious and we had to move to Melbourne to be closer to the hospital here,” he said. His older son Krishna is now 15.

“I quit everything and moved here. Anita was able to get a job while I looked after my son.”

It was around this time that he thought of setting up a security business here and he got his licence. “It was easy enough to open the second operation once you had the first one going on,” he said.

But it was not always that easy. “I went and worked for another company first and the manager was so impressed with me that I was quickly promoted from bodyguard to head of security and then security manager.”

His company now handles 28 nightclubs in Victoria all the way from Ballarat to Melbourne. “We are pretty strong in the regional areas.” His company also specializes in personal protection, alarms, response and consultancy services.

“I was getting a lot of enquiries in Queensland as ours was an alternative security agency as my partner was half Aboriginal. And also, we ran a very honest and professional operation.” However, he has now managed to move away from his Queensland operation in such a way that he does not need to be there all the time. He goes there occasionally.

He has recently opened a new operation in New Zealand which is all set to take off by Christmas.

“We are have about 111 full time guards and on the weekends, that goes up to 170 guards,” says Raj.

There is a reason why his guards are so sought after. “Our security guards are fully trained. We are associated with a training school, there is an interview process, we try them for two weeks in different venues. We make sure they can work with us. Ninety percent of the time the managers of the venue we are dealing with like them. A lot of them have been with me since the day I started. It’s like one big family,” says Raj, obviously proud of his retention rate.

Its hard to avoid trouble when you are working with nightclubs. It can be in the form of a nasty fight, run in with the law or the main problem – drugs.

“I see some pretty bad things out there. I hope my elder son Krishna, 15, steers clear of things like that,” Raj says on a somber note. “In all our venues, there is a zero tolerance to drugs. However, we can only do so much. Most of the time, they do it somewhere else and then get to the club. In that case, we are helpless.” Raj has links with some the policemen in the areas that he works in and helps them occasionally. So if Raj finds someone doing drugs, they are taken straight to the police.

So does he like the nightclub and events circuit? “I do a lot of events with Yogesh Sharma who runs Cinestar. He is one of the most honest people I know and I’ve collaborated with him a few times.” But that is a different ball game altogether and Raj prefers sticking to what he knows.

Indian nights are often derided for the lack of crowd control and Raj sheds some lights on this. He finds that most Indian promoters forsake crowd control in favour of money and this translates to fights and brawls later in the night. “In my experience, there are not too many Indian ladies at these nights and the fights may have something to do with it,” he says, stressing that it is only his private opinion.

With his company growing so fast, Raj considers himself a lucky man. “I like being my own boss. And the guards are a key factor in the company doing so well.”

The only drawback is that his business eats into his time with the family. “I am away a lot, even if I’m home, I’m tired. I away at night time too. But that is part of the game isn’t it?”