EP. 12
Music
The Carnatic Singer Who Almost Quit
A conversation about discipline, doubt, and finding an audience without a label behind you.
Watch on YouTubeThe Star Next Door is a podcast that walks past the spotlight and into the next lane — finding the singers, athletes, artists, and dreamers who live right beside you, and giving them the mic.
Sometimes it's two houses down — a classical singer who never auditioned, a footballer juggling practice with tuition, a painter who sells canvases after her shift. We go looking for them.
No scripts, no spin. Just honest conversations about the work, the setbacks, and what keeps someone showing up.
Musicians, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, and craftspeople from neighbourhoods that rarely get the mic.
Every guest is mid-story — not arrived, not given up. We capture them exactly there.
A few of the doors we've recently knocked on.
A conversation about discipline, doubt, and finding an audience without a label behind you.
Watch on YouTubeA state-level athlete on balancing a day job, family expectations, and a stadium dream.
Watch on YouTubeHow a textile worker built a quiet following for her canvases — one weekend market at a time.
Watch on YouTubeRaji started The Star Next Door with one idea: the most interesting people aren't always the ones already famous — they're the ones still becoming. As host and creator, she does the legwork of finding them, sitting with them, and letting their story breathe.
"I'm not looking for the loudest voice in the room. I'm looking for the one nobody's asked yet."
Read Raji's Story