SBS Spice

While chai and toast serve as a simple breakfast for many, multilingual indie-folk band When Chai Met Toast have captured that comfort in their sound. From heavy metal beginnings to lyrically tugging heartstrings, the quartet has garnered over 60 million views on YouTube alone for their sonic storytelling. Suhayla Sharif chats to guitarist Achyuth Jaigopal and drummer Sailesh Pai about joy, home a...

The story of Diwali in Fiji is intertwined with the history of Indian indentured labourers who arrived on the islands more than a century ago, bringing with them their languages, beliefs, and traditions. Generations later, two Indo-Fijians with very different upbringings come together to discover what they share. Suhayla Sharif and Tavishek Sharma reflect on their Girmit ancestry, family expectati...

As thousands in India protest against controversial voter roll cuts, their anger has reached the streets of Sydney. SBS Spice's Dilpreet Taggar went to the protest to ask Indian Australians why they're speaking out from thousands of kilometres away. What she found was a clash of opinions on democracy, patriotism, and whether standing up for India means questioning its government. Watch the episode...

Can South Asian identity become a trap for South Asian artists? Two-time Archibald finalist Kirthana Selvaraj is challenging the pressure to make cultural identity recognisable and palatable. In her new exhibition, 'In the Half Light', at Sydney's 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, she responds to the legacy of queer Asian Australian artist Andy Ewing, whose provocative work confronted fetishis...

More than 2,000 detained as thousands protest the reported removal of 130 million names from electoral rolls in the world's largest democracy. India's Election Commission says the exercise is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible voters, while protesters allege it is disenfranchising legitimate voters to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP. SBS Australia's Asia Correspondent Aaron Fer...

What can a pot of chicken curry tell us about where we come from? For theatre-maker Joshua Hinton, it holds generations of family history, from his grandmother’s extraordinary journey across continents to his own experience of growing up brown in Wollongong. In this episode of SBS Spice, Joshua tells Suhayla Sharif how he turned his family’s stories into 'A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen', a theatr...

Munesh went into SBS series 'The Jury' fascinated by how juries work. He came out questioning whether they are the right way to decide guilt at all. As one of 12 Australians reconsidering a real murder case, he saw how quickly the same evidence can produce completely different interpretations of truth, reasonable doubt, and justice. He speaks to Suhayla Sharif about how his Indo-Fijian upbringing...

A naan lands on the table, fragrant with saltbush and lemon myrtle. It’s unmistakably Indian, but its flavours draw from Aboriginal food traditions that have existed for thousands of years. Sydney's Indian restaurant Lavendra brings this rare fusion in its new seasonal menu, Cooking with Country. SBS Spice speaks with owner Inderpreet Singh and Wiradjuri man Nathan "mudyi" Sentance, whose poetry c...

Twenty-five years ago, Dil Chahta Hai brought Aamir Khan, Preity Zinta, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti to Sydney for a 45-day shoot. There were helicopters, packed streets, late-night takes, missed shots, and a crew working in a way Anupam Sharma says Indian cinema hadn’t seen before. He takes us back to the making of the film’s Australian scenes, and why Sydney became such a big part...

Swati Sachdeva is one of the few women in Indian comedy openly talking about being bisexual, but she has no interest in letting that define her work. In Australia for her first tour, Swati speaks with Dilpreet Taggar about being a woman in Indian stand-up, being boxed in after going viral, and the unexpected sense of kinship she finds among South Asians overseas. And before she leaves, we put her...

For Raghav Handa, Sydney is a city of show-offs, daredevils, storytellers and people who know how to make a scene. Naturally, he loves it. The Australian-Indian choreographer’s new work, One Song, premieres with Sydney Dance Company and draws on the city that shaped him. But why do South Asians love dance and music while hesitating to see them as real careers? And why shouldn’t loving your culture...

For four seasons, SBS’s Logie-nominated survival series ‘Alone Australia’ has asked contestants what it means to be truly alone, with $250,000 on the line. Now casting its next group of survivors, executive producer Riima Daher tells Suhayla Sharif what it takes to join the hit series, where nature is both protagonist and antagonist. Do you have what it takes to survive? Find out in this episode o...

SBS Spice stepped into a night of big wins and even bigger pride at the Australian Sikh Awards of Excellence 2026. Across eight categories, Sikh Australians were celebrated for building businesses, advancing agriculture, serving communities, excelling in sport and the arts, and uplifting women and young people. With the community contributing an estimated $15.5 billion to Australia, Bali Padda, Ma...

Shamik Chakrabarti has quietly become one of India's most distinctive English-language comedians, and while on his Australian tour, he dropped into SBS Spice. Unfortunately for him, Dilpreet Taggar had bigger priorities than comedy. Like astrology, of course. Somehow they do find time to discuss comedy writing, Aussie slang, Indian parents, whale watching, and omelettes. Not necessarily in that or...

Australia's very own Shabana Azeez has missed the sourdough slices and local coffees since making her mark in American television with 'The Pitt'. She also hasn't forgotten how being on-screen brings new hurdles for South Asian actors. As she prepared for SBS's latest drama 'The Airport Chaplain' to take off, she sat down with Suhayla Sharif to unpack her life between flights. Listen now, only on...

SBS’s biggest new drama is ready for departure. At the heart of one of Australia’s busiest international airports, 'The Airport Chaplain' brings together the people, languages and lives that keep the country moving. Actor Arka Das joins Dilpreet Taggar to talk about bringing the ambitious series to life and why this story could only be told by SBS. Listen now, on SBS Spice. SBS Spice is your go-to...

Are journalists storytellers? Or are they just agents for storytelling? ABC News presenter Jeremy Fernandez and photojournalist Mridula Amin have broken and captured some of the most powerful stories in Australian media. In this chat with Dilpreet Taggar, they discuss the weight diversity carries in news reporting, both in front of and behind the camera. Listen and watch now, only on SBS Spice. SB...

Amongst the black and white of hard journalism, Marc Fennell is magnetised by the grey. Starting as "that movie guy" on SBS to 'Stuff The British Stole' across its many mediums, Marc has built his career on turning stories into adventures. The 'Mastermind' host joins SBS Spice's Suhayla Sharif to discuss some of the most compelling topics of our time— curly haircare, "baddies" and skinny jeans. Li...

A movement that began as internet satire has exploded into one of the biggest youth-led challenges to Narendra Modi's government in years. Reporting from Delhi, SBS Asia Correspondent Aaron Fernandes joins SBS Spice's Dilpreet Taggar to explain the rise of the Cockroach Janta Party, the NEET exam leak that ignited the protests, Sonam Wangchuk's hunger strike, the police response, and why the movem...

As Indians become Australia’s largest migrant community, what conversations are we still avoiding? Growing up, Dalit-Australian artist Kirtika Kain hid her caste. Today, she’s one of the few artists in Australia placing it at the centre of her work. Kain joins SBS Spice’s Dilpreet Taggar to discuss why reading Dr B.R. Ambedkar in a community, thousands of kilometres from India, still gives her the...

The West loves simple stories about India. Leena Yadav doesn’t. The acclaimed filmmaker behind Parched (2015) and House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths (2021) joins Dilpreet Taggar to dissect where India’s bold feminist cinema has gone and why one of the world’s most complex countries refuses to fit a single story. SBS Spice is your go-to for South Asian Australian culture, exploring what makes us t...

As Indians become Australia’s largest migrant community, SBS Spice’s Dilpreet Taggar sits down with Indian music star and innovator Ritviz ahead of his Kurta Saree Dance Party, where you must turn up in kurtas and sarees to celebrate music and South Asian culture. For many young South Asians, wearing traditional clothing once came with self-consciousness. Today, it can be an act of pride. Watch th...

Drawn from real life testimonies from the Sri Lankan civil war, theatre production 'The Jungle and the Sea' brings one family’s story to Australian stages. Dilpreet speaks with writer and director S. Shakthidharan, and actors Prakash Belawadi and Nadie Kammallaweera, about memory, identity and why people are always more than the worst thing that’s happened to them. The Jungle and the Sea will be s...

Australia is part of the Asia-Pacific, so why do we still look to Europe and North America for cultural validation? Dilpreet Taggar sits down with Asia TOPA Creative Director Jeff Khan to discuss Australia's cultural identity and what it would take to truly embrace our place in the region. They also look ahead to Asia TOPA's return in 2028, following a 2025 festival that brought together more than...

We tried interviewing Kanan Gill. He had other plans. One of India’s finest comedians spends most of this interview doing everything except answering Dilpreet’s questions. Somehow, they still end up talking about why life is weird and whether anyone ever really figures it out. Kanan is bringing his latest stand-up show, Not This Again, to Australia. We talk about that too. Promise. Watch on YouTub...