Reality TV show Cooku With Comali is a popular Tamil weekly, that has been airing on Vijay TV for the last five seasons. Cooku with Comali Season 5 anchor Manimegalai recently shocked the viewers by announcing her exit mid-show. Manimegalai is a popular face in the anchoring/TV industry, and her Instagram post on her quitting CWC 5 read, 

"Not a Part of Cook With Comali anymore.

With utmost Sincerity , Honest & Dedication i always give all my 100% of efforts & Hard work in whichever programme im committed to. Same with CWC Since 2019 Nov, where the journey of the Stress buster show began.

But NOTHING is More important than SELF RESPECT ! I strictly follow that in all stages of my life. Even Fame, Money, Profession, Opportunities or Whatever, Never Mind. Everything is Secondary when it comes to Self respect. Hence i walked away from CWC.

This season was completely dominated by another female anchor, especially in Anchors Part, who was actually supposed to be a COOK of the show, but she often forgets that & deliberately interrupts alot in Anchor portions by not letting me to do the Job. Even asking for our rights & raising a concern becomes as an offence in this season. But ill always raise voice for whatever is right for me & i don’t care about anybody. Lot of negativity & dominance overshadow the Originality of the show. This s not the same CWC which i used to enjoy working before. So im not part of it anymore.

I have been in this field since 2010, this s my 15th year as an Anchor. Had ups & downs but never experienced such immature behaviours. But i still Wish only the best to the Person who did this to me. May god bless her with More Shows & Opportunities so that others will not be Suffered. LIVE & LET LIVE.

And makkaley, i wil ll always cherish all memories of our favourite Cook with Comali & im glad that i have worked with most professional production team from Season 1 to Season Thanks for all the love Chottiiiii’s 💛

WORK HARD
TRUST GOD"

Manimegalai who has been anchoring for the last 15 years since the age of 17, also released a video titled 'What really happened ! Clarification Video | Cook With Comali | Manimegalai' on her official YouTube channel. In it she says that after being part of the Cooku With Comali show as a 'Comali' for 3 and a half seasons, and anchor for half of CWC 4, and CWC 5 till now, hints heavily that Priyanka Deshpande is the reason behind her exit. 

"From the beginning till the day I walked out of Cooku With Comali 5, lot of dominations. Someone has been interrupting my anchor portions with the mindset of 'what have you people done in the last 4 seasons, now I am here, this is how it should be done'... One of the contestants is actually an anchor (Priyanka Deshpande), but in this show she is a contestant. When she got involved in the anchoring, I informed the team (of CWC/Vijay TV). She too knew about it but her interruptions kept growing day by day...When we put forth a concern, people should atleast be ears, but (her response was) 'I've been around for so many years, how can you raise this concern, this harms my repute'", Manimegalai said. 

Manimegalai continued, "We cannot be intimidated by how big the opposite person is right?...What she expected was that I should tell her that she could talk/do whatever she wanted to me, on the show. How could I say that?. The pressure for me to say this to her continued...I was even offered extra shows, promise of a good name and associations in exchange for saying this to her...I was warned of a big loss and told that I could spoil my career over this...Despite all this, if I've quit the show, it is because of my self respect." 

Manimegalai concluded, "Vijay TV channel has been always supportive obviously. Thanks to the channel but the production team of Cooku With Comali Season 5 is the most unprofessional I've come across in my 15 years of experience...My last word to them was ask her to do (the anchoring of CWC 5) if she can".