Comedy
The Popcom Cast
Durban's loudest, brightest stage family, proof that our aunties are the best material.
Durban · Est. 2026
This is our story.
Our way.
Indian South African stories, conversations, culture and entertainment, from Durban to the world.
Watch ✦Podcast ✦People ✦Food ✦Culture ✦Comedy ✦Business ✦Community ✦Durban ✦Diaspora ✦Watch ✦Podcast ✦People ✦Food ✦Culture ✦Comedy ✦Business ✦Community ✦Durban ✦Diaspora ✦Watch ✦Podcast ✦People ✦Food ✦Culture ✦Comedy ✦Business ✦Community ✦Durban ✦Diaspora ✦Watch ✦Podcast ✦People ✦Food ✦Culture ✦Comedy ✦Business ✦Community ✦Durban ✦Diaspora ✦
Featured now
EasternConnection · Episodes
Watch
Stories worth watching. Conversations worth having.One channel, many formats: our flagship podcast, documentaries, cultural features, profiles, travel stories, entertainment and shorts.
EP 12 · 48:12 · Oct 2026
The Cane Cutters' Legacy
With Ashwin Singh. Indenture, identity and the stories we inherited.
Watch on YouTube
41:05EP 11 · Oct 2026
Lights, Camera, Durban
With Quintin Lee White, Making films with no budget and every ambition.
36:40EP 10 · Sep 2026
Funny Because It's True
With Popcom cast, Comedy, family and the art of laughing at ourselves.
52:18EP 09 · Sep 2026
Writers' Room
With Durban storytellers, Where Durban stories actually start.
44:30EP 08 · Aug 2026
The Stage Is Home
With Playhouse alumni, Twenty-five years of Durban theatre.
Now playing · Episode 12
EasternConnection Podcast
Conversations with the people shaping Indian South African culture, creativity, business and entertainment.
The Cane Cutters' Legacy, with Ashwin Singh
Playwright, attorney and filmmaker Ashwin Singh on indenture, comedy and why Durban stories deserve a bigger stage.
Culture
There is more than one way to be Indian South African.
People worth knowing
Artists
Durban's New Writers
A generation writing Durban in its own voice, without asking permission.
Actors
The Players
Actors who've carried Durban stories from the Playhouse to the UK.
Theatre
The Night Shift
The performers, techs and dreamers who make opening night happen.
Creators
The Street Kings
Hoodies, shades and a lot to say. Durban's next wave of characters.
The producers
The people behind the connection
EasternConnection is the Singh siblings’ vision: Ashwin and Shantal Singh’s commitment to telling local stories in our own voices. Born in Durban, it explores the culture, experiences, identities and histories of Indian South African communities, and the relationships they share with the other South African communities around them, with a creative team helping those stories reach the world.
01
Producer / Creator
Ashwin Singh
Attorney, academic, playwright, actor, director and filmmaker. Three-time PANSA national playwriting award winner, internationally published by Aurora Metro Books, with plays translated into ten languages and films selected for 26 festivals on five continents.
Selected work
- Durban Dialogues, Indian Voice
- The Cane Cutters' Transcendence
- Playtime
- Free-Fall
02
SSPortrait coming soon
Producer
Shantal Singh
Clinical psychologist, theatre and film producer and creator of children's stories. Co-founded The Singh Siblings in 2001 and serves as producer and financial consultant, 25 years of Durban productions and counting.
Selected work
- The Singh Siblings (Pty) Ltd
- Durban: Creolised Creative City
- 25-year anniversary, 1860 Heritage Centre
03
Producer
Quintin Lee White
Founder of Quintin Lee White Productions and the Singh Siblings' most prolific creative partner. Co-director of Playtime, and co-producer of both Durban: Creolised Creative City and The Cane Cutters' Transcendence.
Selected work
- Co-producer, Durban: Creolised Creative City
- Co-producer, The Cane Cutters' Transcendence
- Co-director, Playtime
- Quintin Lee White Productions
04 · Partner
Nesan Pather
Works across entertainment and production. Nesan takes a story from the first idea to the finished piece, then brings it into digital spaces where it can be watched, shared and kept.
Local stories. Our voices. A world of connection.
From Durban
to the world.
Born from one of the largest Indian communities outside India, EasternConnection tells stories that begin in South Africa but resonate far beyond it.
- South Africa
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- United States
- Trinidad
- UAE
- India
- Mauritius
- Malaysia
- Singapore
- Australia
- New Zealand
Made in Durban
Hot curries. Warm oceans. Loud families. Bigger personalities.
There is nowhere quite like home.
25 years of Durban storytelling
From the archive
Books, films, stages and the people who made them. A look back at The Singh Siblings' work on the road to EasternConnection.
Stories
CultureEntertainmentFoodPeopleBusinessOpinionCommunityLifestyle
Watch · 8 min read
From the cane fields to the festival circuit
How a Durban documentary about indenture, memory and reinvention travelled to film festivals on five continents.
Culture · 6 min read
Durban: the most creolised creative city you've never been told about
A new documentary argues the city's real genius is in its mixing.
Film · 5 min read
Playtime: a short film that refuses to play nice
Ashwin Singh's first narrative short, filmed in the green corners of KwaZulu-Natal.
People · 7 min read
Durban Dialogues goes back to India
An Indian South African playwright lectures in Kochi, and finds an audience that already knows his work.
Food · 4 min read
Quarter mutton, extra gravy: the bunny chow debate that never ends
Every family has the best place. Every family is wrong, except yours.
Durban · 5 min read
What the spice market remembers
Mother-in-law exterminator, anyone? A walk through the colours and characters of Durban's markets.
Stay
connected.
New episodes. New stories. New voices. Straight from Durban.
The Singh Siblings
Quintin Lee White Productions
The Playhouse Company
Aurora Metro Books
1860 Heritage Centre
Ratnakara Group