Sunanda Sharma is one of the most recognisable voices in Punjabi music. From uploading cover videos as a student to fronting some of the biggest Punjabi tracks of the last decade — Billi Akh, Patake, Jaani Tera Naa, Morni, Sandal and Duji Vaar Pyar — she built a career on instinct, expression and sheer stage presence. She made her acting debut in Sajjan Singh Rangroot and has since performed across India and abroad, and today stands as one of the very few women holding a headline position in an industry that has rarely made room for them at the top.In this candid episode of Homecoming With Homeland, host Tarannum Thind sits down with Sunanda Sharma as she returns home mid-way through her India tour. Sunanda speaks with startling honesty about the year she describes as coming down to zero — living in a rented house she could no longer pay the rent for — and how she promised her mother she'd buy them a home within a year, then did it in a month and a half, becoming the first woman in her family to own a house in her own name. She talks about losing her father, an electrician who raised her without a single shred of self-doubt, and admits she has still never cried or grieved for him. She opens up about rebuilding her relationship with her mother after eight or nine years apart — two strangers in two separate rooms who are now, in her words, best friends. She shares why she has taken on the schooling of her brother's two children and what motherhood at this stage of her life has taught her about patience, and why she quietly pays a nursery student's fees at the very school where she was once made to stand in front of the whole assembly because her own fees were late.She is equally unfiltered about the business. Sunanda explains why she now works only on paper, why she tells every newcomer to trust no one, and why she is grateful to the person who took her money and tried to damage her reputation. She speaks about knowing her own worth, walking away from films that don't pay it, performing through pain that male artists never have to explain, and why so many women find it impossible to talk about money at all. There's also the Sunanda few people see — the social anxiety she still carries, her dog Chichi, the hill café she drives an hour to just to look at the sky, the shayari she writes at 4am and rarely shows anyone, and her belief that vulnerability is a superpower. She closes on the dream she's chasing hardest: taking a Punjabi female artist to the stadium-filling heights the men already occupy — and why she'd count it as her own win even if someone else gets there first.As part of this tour, one thousand trees will be planted in Sunanda Sharma's name in partnership with the Roundglass Foundation.Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to Tarannum Thind for more inspiring conversations with visionaries and icons on Homecoming With Homeland. Watch the full episode now! ☕🎙️#SunandaSharma #HomecomingWithHomeland #TarannumThind #PunjabiMusic #PunjabiSinger #SunandaSharmaInterview Watch Other Podcasts By Tarannum Thind -Homecoming With Homeland - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwwDKSbQCA-QUnctrlrhIkpTmfarhtNcSChait With T - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwwDKSbQCA-QbbytbnvZGQtF-pCEQSzLEAfter nearly 30 years away, Tarannum Thind returned home not just to a place, but to the stories, memories, and connections that shaped her journey.Homecoming is a conversation series that brings together some of India's most influential artists for intimate, unfiltered discussions about life beyond the spotlight. Through stories of ambition, sacrifice, identity, success, and belonging, artists reflect on where they came from, what they've overcome, and the moments that defined them.Inspired by Tarannum's own homecoming, the series explores a universal truth: no matter how far life takes us, our roots continue to shape who we become.
