Sunanda Sachtrakul says she realized her comic side after she came out as a gay to her parents.
“So I told myself if I can be true to myself, if I can be gay, then I can maybe also be true to myself and try to perform and be a comedian,” Sunanda told SBS Hindi.
“I actually came out to my parents as a lesbian and then the belief of being more in touch with who I was and realizing I had the courage to come out also was the starting point of finding the courage to pursue comedy, because I always loved it but I did production as I was a producer working with other creative people making other people’s vision come alive, telling other people’s stories.
"But once I came out I realized I really have an obsession with comedy and it brings me so much joy to be on stage and to entertain people and to maybe make them think, maybe provoke them a little. But mostly make them laugh.”
Sunanda was adopted by a Punjabi couple, who themselves were born and raised in Bangkok, from an orphanage in New Delhi.
Source: Supplied by Danyal Syed
Her show is called ‘How Gay Am I?’, a one-hour stage show where she combines different forms of storytelling.
“I do a couple of different characters as clowning and an original song but it all explores my own queerness. I start with the story of how I came out to my Punjabi parents about six years ago now,” Sunanda explains.
She says her characters are an exploration of life if one thing had been different in her life.
“If I had been adopted in London for example or if I had not been adopted at all. What would those people be like?”
Was it tough coming out? Sunanda says it is never easy.
Source: Supplied by Danyal Syed
“I think it’s never easy for anybody. I don’t want to say especially not easy as a Punjabi woman but certainly one of the more difficult experiences I have heard of because as you know it only just became legal in India.
"So that attitude there is still quite homophobic in general. I mean there is homophobia all over the world. But I think what little I see on TV and in Bollywood, there is not a lot of acceptance yet,” she says.
Sunanda has visited India only eight times so far but she performed in Hyderabad. The response, she says, was overwhelming. And, she does make fun of the LGBTQI+ community in her performances.
“Oh absolutely, but I think I can make fun of gays. Gay people are just people. And people have faults. And it’s fun to make fun of faults because when you are making fun of something, you recognize that it exists.
Source: Supplied by Danyal Syed
"And I think as long as you are not picking on someone. And what I also like to do is make fun of other people’s perception of what is gay and that is why I have called my show How Gay Am I,” says Sunanda.
