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SBS Spice breaks new ground with English language content for young Australians of South Asian heritage. We're talking about the things that make you tick or ick with a fresh new look at pop culture, identity, food, sport, history and much more.
103 Episodes
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In 2022, when ordinary bakers became banana bread connoisseurs, Anirban Chanda took his lifelong passion for baking online. Five years later, his sweet experiments have risen to new heights: a spot on season 8 of ‘The Great Australian Bake Off’ and a growing business, ‘Another Whisk’. In this episode, he joins Suhayla Sharif to talk about blending native Australian flavours with his Bengali sweet tooth. Warning: this chat will make you hungry. Listen now on SBS Spice.
Aryan Khan makes his directorial debut with 'The Ba***ds of Bollywood', a sharp satire on fame and chaos in the film industry. In this SBS Spice episode, Dilpreet speaks with Bobby Deol, Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Anya Singh and Sahher Bambba about villains, managers, “nepo kids” and everything in between. From legacies to behind-the-scenes madness, the cast explain why Aryan’s first series feels dangerously close to reality. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch the interview on YouTube.
“And what will people say?”... For too many South Asian survivors of domestic violence, it’s the question that keeps them silent. Theatre-maker Kersherka Sivakumaran flips that silence into art with her new work 'And What Will People Say?' at Sydney Fringe Festival. Merging her frontline volunteering with her love for Bharatanatyam and performance, she uses theatre to confront stigma head-on. In conversation with Suhayla Sharif, Kersherka shares how clarity of intent and artistic storytelling can turn shame into dialogue. Listen only on SBS Spice.
We love girl dads. And Saesha's dad fits the bill a little too perfectly. For this Father's Day, she bribes him with a Yo-Chi to jump on the pod and spill his secret to surviving three women in the house. It's a little scary, he admits. Dr Sanjaya Senanayake is one of Australia's most recognised health experts who has often embarrassed his family on national TV with his "jokes". We're certain he is a big deal but for this episode, he is just a dad (and also our official Spice Girl). Listen now, only on SBS Spice.
For Shabana Azeez, being the first to represent her roots is only the beginning. The Adelaide-born actor once faced a choice between a drama school acceptance and her Indo-Fijian family’s support. Today, with screen credits spanning genres and borders, she’s opening doors in an industry she once risked entering. As she builds her character Victoria Javadi in the medical drama 'The Pitt', Shabana speaks with Suhayla Sharif about humble beginnings, the lessons of failure, and turning competition into community. Listen now on SBS Spice, wherever you get your podcasts.
At just 12, Melbourne-based musician Meghna uploaded her first song to YouTube. More than a decade on, her fusion of alt-pop and unflinching storytelling has built a catalogue earning recognition from Rolling Stone Australia and national broadcaster Rage, while connecting her to a growing global audience. With Tamil and Bengali roots grounding her, Meghna speaks to Suhayla Sharif about channelling fury into music, the power of staying authentic, and her new EP ‘A World Full of Idiots’.
Can obsessive, all-or-nothing love still hold Bollywood’s box office? Suhayla and Dilpreet ask if the success of 'Saiyaara' signals a comeback for Indian cinema’s big, messy love stories. And maybe what Bollywood really needs to feel alive again are the very clichés we once rolled our eyes at: the slow-mo shots, the airport chases, the kind of drama only Bollywood can pull off and we secretly never stopped loving.
When Rohan Kanawade returned to his family’s village to mourn his father, he carried more than grief. He carried a story. That story became Cactus Pears, the first Marathi-language film to premiere at Sundance and now making its Australian debut at the Melbourne International Film Festival. In this conversation, Rohan speaks to SBS Spice about finding tenderness between men without cliché, resisting the urge to define characters by their sexuality, and why rooting a film deeply in the soil it comes from can make it universal. Listen on SBS Spice.
Content warning: This story contains references to domestic violence. In Australia, 1 in 6 women are survivors of domestic violence. For migrant women, that rises to 1 in 3. In South Asian communities, shame and taboo can bury these stories even deeper, silencing survivors of physical, emotional and financial abuse. In this episode, host Saesha Senanayake hears from Emma*, trauma-informed counsellor Shalina Lodhia, human rights lawyer Lokesh Kashyap, and sexual health and forensic medicine specialist Dr Vanita Parekh on the cultural, legal and medical supports needed to break that silence. Listen now on SBS Spice, wherever you get your podcasts.
Keg de Souza, an architecturally trained artist of Goan ancestry, sees plants as living witnesses whose roots trace journeys of migration, displacement and survival. From the colonial spread of eucalyptus to the politics embedded in everyday landscapes, her work asks us to look closer. In her latest project 'Plant Trials', a residency with the Melbourne Arts Precinct and the University of Melbourne, she turns a rooftop garden into a living laboratory investigating which plants can thrive in a changing climate to shape resilient urban landscapes. Listen on SBS Spice.
Leela Varghese was once told there weren’t any roles for her on Australian screens. So she stopped chasing auditions and picked up a camera instead. Now her films, including 'Lesbian Space Princess' and 'I'm The Most Racist Person I Know' (screening at MIFF this year), are crashing festivals around the world. In this episode, the Lebanese-Indian filmmaker speaks with Suhayla Sharif about growing up brown in Queensland, making space for queer South Asian stories, and why confronting internalised prejudice starts with gentle honesty. Listen now on SBS Spice.
Masala is the backbone of South Asian cooking, and for Kashmiri-Australian author Sarina Kamini, understanding it has established her as a scholar of spice. In her new book 'What We Call Masala', she unpacks the layered alchemy of Indian food and invites readers to explore its transportive power. Sarina joins Suhayla Sharif to share the magic of a masala dabba, why eating with your hands is the only way, and how Indian recipes carry generations of resilience. Listen now on SBS Spice, wherever you get your podcasts.
Podcast episodes are planned. This one wasn’t. Expect practice kisses, podcast fails, almost-texts to your ex’s new girlfriend and a few emotional curveballs. Dilpreet and Suhayla go rogue in this no-topic-but-all-the-topics episode of SBS Spice. But what starts as pure banter lands somewhere surprisingly tender. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.
What do you get when a millennial and a Gen Z walk into a podcast? A bit of chaos, a bit of cringe, and some surprisingly common ground. In this spicy episode, Dilpreet (1994) and Suhayla (2002) roast each other’s quirks, compare internet childhoods, and ask whether dreaming big was a millennial curse or just a bad idea. They dive into cancel culture, low-rise jeans, therapy-speak, and why Gen Alpha already scares them both. It’s fast, funny and a tiny bit existential. Perfect for anyone who’s ever scrolled past bedtime. Listen on SBS Spice.
For queer South Asians in Sydney, Bar Bombay is more than a party. It’s a space to be seen, to move freely, and to celebrate identity without compromise. Run by Trikone Australia, a grassroots collective supporting LGBTQIA+ South Asians, Bar Bombay is where drag meets desi beats, and community turns into chosen family. In this episode, dancer, choreographer and Trikone Chair Zahra Babuji joins Dilpreet Kaur Taggar to talk joy, resistance and taking up space. What does it mean to finally see yourself, not just in the crowd, but centre stage?
If you have darker skin, you're more likely to be misdiagnosed, untreated, or ignored. Even when it comes to something as serious as skin cancer. SBS Spice hosts Saesha Senanayake & Suhayla Sharif cut through the noise and ask why the medical and skincare industries still fail people of colour. Dermatologist Dr Leona Yip breaks down the blind spots. Cosmetic physicians Dr Sanamdeep Dhillon and Dr Gobinder Kashmirian explain why they built a brand for skin that's always been an afterthought. And Sara Chaturvedi shares what it’s like living with chronic eczema, and getting advice from everyone except the people who can actually help. Listen on SBS Spice.
Taught by her father at just four years old, Gayathri Krishnan began her musical life steeped in Carnatic tradition: its scales, its rigour, its reverence. Today, the LA-based singer carries that inheritance into a sound that folds seamlessly into neo-soul and R&B, creating something both ancient and entirely her own. In this episode of SBS Spice, Gayathri joins Dilpreet Kaur Taggar in studio ahead of her first-ever Australian performance at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. They speak about learning to trust your voice in a world of streaming stats, making music from instinct not formula, and why her song “Made It” became a quiet declaration of self-worth. Listen only on SBS Spice, wherever you get your podcasts.
Prada Kolhapuris are trending. But why does something rooted in South Asian culture only become “fashionable” once it hits a Western runway? And when did basmati rice bags become designer? Dilpreet and Suhayla unpack the mixed feelings around cultural validation, from luxury takes on everyday items to oil massages rebranded as TikTok wellness rituals. Is it appreciation, appropriation or just capitalism? Plus, why Ed Sheeran’s Sapphire feels like collaboration done right, and why Coldplay and Beyoncé didn’t get the same love.
Ever heard a bansuri drop into a bassline? That’s exactly the kind of sonic alchemy Indian electronica duo Tech Panda (Rupinder Nanda) and Kenzani (Kedar Santwani) are known for. Ahead of their debut Australian tour, the pair are bringing a bold new sound to the stage — blending classical Indian textures with deep, hypnotic electronic rhythms. From 'Saawariya' to 'Dilbar', their tracks have lit up social media. But virality is just the surface. Suhayla Sharif sits down with the duo to unpack how they’re reshaping India’s musical heritage into something deeply rooted and radically new.
Sharon Johal didn’t just want to act. She wanted to be seen. The Punjabi-Australian actor left behind a career in law to fill a gap she’d long noticed on Australian screens: someone who looked like her. First seen on SBS’ Bollywood Star, Sharon has gone on to appear in the cult-classic Neighbours, The Block, and more — becoming both a familiar face and a vocal force for change. But visibility has come at a cost, with Sharon facing racial abuse off-screen and online. In this conversation with Suhayla Sharif at SBS Sydney, she reflects on 15 years in front of the camera and what it really means to take up space. Listen now on SBS Spice, wherever you get your podcasts.
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