PRETTY MUSICAL’

After scoring for the restored 1928 Indian silent period drama Shiraz: A Romance of India, British Indian sitarist Anoushka Shankar is enthused about taking up more film projects, albeit with “modern” narratives and “normal conversations”.

“I really loved getting to score my first film, and as everyone in the film would tell me, what I started with was especially challenging because it was a silent film. So it was a real big project to take on,” she says about the project.

“It was difficult, but I found it very fulfilling. I really look forward to hopefully doing more kind of modern films with normal conversations,” Anoushka adds.

The London-based sitarist, daughter of the late globallyrenowned sitar exponent Ravi Shankar, was in Mumbai last week for a “pit-stop”, waiting to get back home to sons Zubin and Mohan, after being out for work for two months. Are her sons, who she had with estranged husband, filmmaker Joe Wright, into music?

“Well, they seem to be pretty musical and they seem to be interested in listening to all kinds of music. My older boy has started doing piano... He is still not interested in the sitar,” she shares.

Anoushka believes that there is a difference between perception and reality as far as the youth being inclined towards classical music in India is concerned. “I think the perception (that classical music doesn’t have an ample audience) is interesting because it’s to do with popular culture. When we look around the mainstream culture, it’s easy to think that classical music doesn’t have a strong audience because it’s not really represented or reflected in our mainstream media and visible culture,” she asserts.

“You have to look elsewhere to see how many festivals, how many audience members there are. And I think that’s much more to do with the media and lack of representation for our classical arts... That needs to be looked at,” she reasons.

The social media-savvy Anoushka, who split from Wright earlier this year, shared a heartfelt post about first loves and heartbreaks, in an Instagram post last month.

“I frequently share personal thoughts on social media and I am always very open. Sometimes when I have a feeling, I think maybe there’s something in it that may be helpful to somebody else. So then I tend to share it,” she reflects on the post.

“I think [it] can be a really nice opportunity to connect with people and something that helps people engage with themselves,” she signs off.