No interest in Bollywood: Anoushka Shankar

Sitarist Anoushka Shankar’s work speaks for itself. She started playing the sitar at an early age of eight, and went on to become the first Indian to play at the Grammy Awards. “I used to see my father (Pt Ravi Shankar) play and I too started playing sitar when I was eight. But the idea of taking it up as a career and profession came gradually,” says Anoushka, who gave birth to her first child last year. “It has become very challenging as I’m a mother now.

I have to be devoted towards music and performances as much as I have to be towards the kid. It’s a balancing act,” she adds.
Anoushka, who does an average of 60 live shows a year, likes to be called a travelling musician and insists that she loves performing in places and cities “where I have lots of friends”.

Besides hanging out with friends and listening to classical music, Anoushka also enjoys chilling with half-sister, singer Norah Jones. “We have a gala time together… like any two sisters. Yes, we do discuss work too,” she smiles.

Ask her if she will also be making inroads into Bollywood soon, like several other British Indian musicians and she quips, “I have no interest in moving towards Bollywood music,” she asserts. “First of all, I do not think Bollywood music is any genre in itself. Hence the whole concept of calling it Bollywood music is incomprehensible to me. Certainly some compositions are beautiful, but as a musician I feel Bollywood music is too predominant,” she adds.

Presently, Anoushka is enjoying the accolades and critical acclaims for her latest album Traveller. And to promote the same, she will be doing live concerts, as a part of VH1 Handpicked, in both Mumbai and Delhi. “I have recorded some part of the album in India too with artistes like Shubha Mugdal, Sanjeev Shankar, Aditya Prakash etc — though most of it (album) has been made in Spain and London,” says Anoushka, who is now looking forward to her India tour.