Mayanti Langer is one of India’s first women broadcast presenters. The host of Kent Cricket Live, she manages to bring the perfect balance between sport and entertainment. Metroplus managed to catch the busy host this IPL season for a telephonic interview. Excerpts:
How did your career as a broadcast presenter start?
It was quite accidental. It’s not something I planned to do. I was involved in sports, particularly football, when I was in college and I was picked up by a couple of channels. When a new channel was starting they thought I might work on TV so they got me to audition. I did a few football shows. The rest is history. I got the opportunity to become a television presenter and start hosting. It’s been twelve years. I was very lucky to get a lot of different opportunities and a lot of sports come my way.
What do you do to prepare for Kent Cricket Live?
I’ve been with Star Sports for the last three years now. I’ve primarily done cricket for the last two and a half years. Quite a lot of preparation goes behind our shows and there are a lot of people behind the scenes that conceptualize our shows. If you follow Kent Cricket Live then you know that we’ve had a theme running which is relevant to the league every week in the last month. I’m at work by 4. I talk to my producer, we might do a few pre-records. We talk to our analysts and experts. It’s like sitting with your friends in your living room except you are just doing it in front of the whole country.
Which has been your most memorable IPL interview so far?
I don’t think it’s fair for me to pick. I’ve had so much fun. We’ve had such great people as a part of our panel. We’ve got Aussie commentators, Indian commentators and for the first time in a long time we’ve got a lot of English commentators. Michael Vaughan joined us, Nasser Hussain and Kevin Pieterson. Every show with these guys has been memorable.
Is cricket jargon a mainstay at home for you and Stuart Binny?
No, not at all. We’re just like any normal couple who enjoy normal couple things. Sport and cricket are very important to both of us because it’s redefined our professional lives and it’s because of cricket that we met. So it’s obviously played a huge role in our personal lives. But no. Cricket doesn’t dictate the conversations at home.
You have quite the Twitter presence.
To be honest I don’t know what I’m going to say and what gets turned into an article. I personally don’t think I’m that interesting. Social media for me has mostly been just for work. I’m a little old school. I still have to think twice before typing anything and make sure it’s grammatically correct.
You also seem to have garnered a lot of attention for your sense of fashion. What’s the secret behind your impeccable dressing?
I have absolutely no secret. We have a styling team here in place for all of us. I have absolutely no say. It’s with our stylist who has done a great job this IPL. Personally I would love to sit in distressed jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers. I’m a very casual person in real life.
Being a strong presence on social media, what’s your take on internet trolls? How do you deal with them?
I personally ignore them. I think my fear for internet trolls is that it’s basically just bullying. I’m older now and I have a family of younger sisters and a lot of cousins who are on social media. It opens you up to a world of negativity and harm potentially. People think social media is the real world and I don’t want young boys and girls allowing that form of bullying into their lives. When I get trolled, which virtually happens every single day, it doesn’t bother me as much because what you say about the way I look is not going to change the way I look and what you say about my husband is not going to change how much I love him.
What are you passionate about apart from sports?
I’m very passionate about art and design. That’s a reason I love social media. You get opportunities to see such beautiful things everyday. My husband and I are very passionate about wildlife. We love getting away to my father-in-law’s farm just near the forest in Bandipur. We get leopards everyday that come and drink from the watering hole. They travel just outside the farm. It is an absolutely magical place to go to. We go there whenever we get an opportunity to.
