Nothing can overtake sitar: Anoushka Shankar

In India on a five-city tour, Pandit Ravi Shankar's successor and daughter Anoushka, speaks to TWF correspondent Ritesh Sharma about The Anoushka Shankar Project, sitar and father. Read On...

Question: A performance in India again?

Answer: Yeah, but this time it's different. I am performing with my band The Anoushka Shankar Project.

Question: How different is it going to be?

Anoushka Shankar: This project is on the lines of my last album Rise. We experiment a lot with different sounds. The idea behind forming The Anoushka Shankar Project was to distinguish my Indian classical orientation and experimental works.

Question: What is the line up?

Anoushka Shankar: It keeps changing. Tanmoy (Bose) is one of the most integral members of this project, so is Ravichandran Kulur. We keep changing from time to time to time. After all they are all superb musicians and my friends.

Question: And you take charge of all the compositions?

Anoushka Shankar: (Laughs) It's mostly me…

Question: Is it really Panditji's (Ravi Shankar) last performance in his own city, Kolkata?

Anoushka Shankar: It might just be. I really don't know. He is growing older and health problems are becoming a cause of worry. But he is at the same time a strong man at heart and you never know he might just be there again to give the music lovers from his own city a surprise.

Question: You too have been doing a lot of solo concerts of late...

Anoushka Shankar: (Smiles). Every performance is equally exciting and challenging - be it solo or otherwise. The bottom line is that I enjoy playing the sitar.

Question: And how different is it with Panditji?

Anoushka Shankar: It's completely different. I really feel scared at times. (Giggles) I know that he is my guru and I can't make any mistakes. It's always more scary to have my father in the audience than performing with him.

Question: How was it playing your father's Concerto no 3 at the Carnegie Hall in New York?

Anoushka Shankar: In one word 'unimaginable'. It was a complete sell out. It was an experience of a lifetime…the 'most beautiful' honour for me and that too came as a gift from my father.

Question: And what about films? You did work in Pamela Rooks' film.

Anoushka Shankar: I might do one. I am really considering one but certainly films are not my priority. Nothing can overtake sitar… but I am open to the idea. At the same time the film has to be something I can relate to. It can't be just anything. It's not that I am doing music to get a chance in films.

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