Rotorua mayoral candidate Kalaadevi Ananda retracts a claim she won an Emmy

Rotorua's latest mayoral candidate has retracted her claim of winning an Emmy Award, calling it a mistake and a learning opportunity.

Instead, make-up artist Kalaadevi Ananda has clarified that she won a Cable Ace award.

Ananda earlier this week joined the race to become Rotorua's next mayor, promising a "fresh approach" to leading the city she has lived in for 27 years.

She joined five others who had already announced their bid for the job; Raj Kumar, Reynold Macpherson, Fletcher Tabuteau, Tania Tapsell and Ben Sandford.

In her interview with the Rotorua Daily Post, and in her launch media statement, she said she had won an Emmy Award for her work.

Her launch statement said she was an Emmy award-winning makeup artist and Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures who works alongside leading studio executives, producers, directors and actors, as well as her personal staff.

She told a reporter the award was for work on a film When a Stranger Calls Back in 1993.

But after the issue was raised with the Daily Post by a reader and the Daily Post asked further questions, Ananda yesterday retracted the Emmy claim and accepted responsibility for the mistake and any confusion for calling it that.

Ananda said it was a Cable Ace Award she had won. The last ceremony of these awards took place in 1997.

Rotorua mayoral candidate Kalaadevi Ananda. Photo / Andrew Warner

The awards were specifically for original programming on cable television and were started in 1978 before cable programming was allowed to compete in the Emmys.

The Emmys website page detailing the history of the awards says cable programming was allowed to compete for the first time in 1988.

Speaking to the Rotorua Daily Post Weekend yesterday, Ananda said she received the award in 1994 and it was a Cable Ace Award.

She believed the names were interchangeable and calling it an Emmy Award was a mistake.

On whether calling the award one name over the other had more influence, she said people would not know what a Cable Ace Award was because it had not been used as a name since 1997 - but they would know what an Emmy was.

She did not regret making the statement.

"We can focus on that one mistake and error in naming it, or we can look at the whole body of work."

When asked if she thought there would be any difference in how people perceived her comments following the error, she said not when it came to the issues.

She said people should look at things in the big picture.

There was nothing else in her statement or interview with the Rotorua Daily Post that needed correction or clarification, Ananda said.

"The correct name of an award does not determine one's ability or one's authenticity."

She said as far as she was concerned, this was a speedbump, and she was grateful for it.

"They slow you down a little bit and you get to reassess, which is what a mayor will need to do ... mistakes get made."

It was an opportunity to learn, she said.

She said owning an error was what integrity and authenticity involved.

The five other mayoral candidates were contacted for comment.

Ben Sandford was overseas when the request for comment was given, and both Fletcher Tabuteau and Reynold Macpherson declined to comment.

Rotorua mayoral candidate and current councillor Tania Tapsell. Photo / Andrew Warner

Tania Tapsell said she respected Ananda had corrected it as soon as possible but said, in her opinion, it raised concern about the attention to detail she would offer as mayor.

In her view: "This may be a good achievement overseas but has no relevance to Rotorua and won't convince voters she has the experience to run an organisation with over $1 billion of assets like I have.

"I don't know what a Cable Ace is, I was 2 then."

Mayoral candidate Raj Kumar criticised the Daily Post for not properly checking the claim in the first place.

The Rotorua Daily Post accepts more stringent checks should have been made.

- Additional reporting Sandra Conchie