Anoushka Rising

She is a beautiful image of Ravi Shankar, but there is a lot more to Anoushka Shankar than just being her father’s daughter.

A musician who excels both at the sitar and the piano, a writer, and actress, Anoushka recently launched a new album, Rise, written, produced and arranged by her, which was nominated for the Grammies in the contemporary world music section.

In an exclusive interview with Little India’s Kavita Chhibber, Anoushka Shankar talks about her life, her music, George Harrison, the negative stories in the press splashed by her mother’s ex husband, her sister Norah Jones relationship with the Shankars, and much more.

What are your earliest memories of music?

It was before I really started learning music formally. I remember singing with my mom. I have always been interested in music, but it was the piano that I was drawn to. I never really felt an active desire to play the sitar and when I did, I did not like it initially, but my father made it so interesting for me.. Each lesson would be filled with anecdotes, creating pictures in my mind, about each raga, especially when I was younger and slowly I began to like it a lot.

You have become an integral part of Ravi Shankar’s tours since the past few years. Raviji said that you have an uncanny ability to reproduce anything he plays, and he often improvises even while doing a duet with you and you catch up quickly.

A good 90 percent of what my father plays on stage is improvisation, so it is quite a Herculean task playing a duet with him. I am constantly staring at him all the time, picking things up as he continues to improvise and that is why now playing solo is such a wonderful experience for me , because it gives me the opportunity to discover myself a lot more.

Your first three CDs were all traditional classical music and featured solo performances by you. With Rise you have broken new grounds in more ways than one?

I started playing and performing at such a young age, so the focus was a lot on technical perfection, even though I was learning to feel the music and the emotional aspect of it from my father on the side. Today I think my growth as a musician has been as the result of my own personal journey and where I’m today in terms of maturity and being comfortable in my own skin.
When I am performing with my father or playing his compositions, I still focus on what he wants from me and play accordingly, but when I perform solo, it’s different. I can never take away from the fact that my father has an immense influence on who I am as a musician, but he has given me the freedom also to be my own person.

Let’s talk about Rise. You were supposed to be on this one year sabbatical, and here we are with an album, you created on your own and that has earned a Grammy nomination.

Well I knew this was going to be an ensemble album. I must admit I didn’t plan to have so many different artists on it, or that I would play such a minor role in some of the pieces but as I went along, I was so excited by what these artists brought to the album, that I often forgot about my own work.

It was extremely hard to put this album together, as I was working with artists in different age groups with different temperaments, unique caliber and stature. I was also recording in five different cities around the world. The instruments didn’t match and often we worked on the computer going note by note to create a match on every level. For example “Voice of the Moon” is actually four different pieces where each instrument was recorded separately and then made to flow smoothly.

In spite of all the various instruments and music style the album still has a very Indian heart. I’m really proud of the fact that this album is completely my own, and I was involved in all aspects of its creation.

Look at my face. I have looked like Bapi (Ravi Shankar) from the day I was born… how blind will you have to be to figure out whose child I was if you saw us together.

Your mother’s ex husband Narender Kotiyan has pictures of you two poignantly displayed on the internet painting him to be a martyr whose daughter was snatched away by your parents. Even the caption of the recent story “The Man Anoushka Shankar Loved and Lost,’ sounded like you are pining for him, and being kept away against your will. Your mother has never denied that she conceived you while she was still married to Naren, but that the marriage was rocky, a fact he admits to, himself. He also claims that he didn’t know Ravi Shankar was your father.

Look at my face. I have looked like Bapi (Ravi Shankar) from the day I was born… how blind will you have to be to figure out whose child I was if you saw us together

Look at my face. I have looked like Bapi (Ravi Shankar) from the day I was born. My mother did tell him, but even if she didn’t utter a single word, how blind will you have to be to figure out whose child I was if you saw us together. It’s totally idiotic to claim otherwise. My mother and he divorced when I was four, she married my father when I turned seven, so how did he snatch me away from him? In fact, even though he is biologically not my father and as such has no legal right on me, my mother would send me to visit him on weekends and even after they married, both my parents, especially my father were so magnanimous as to encourage me to spend time with him because he was someone who was a part of my early years. But each time I went there, if I let him, he would try to say things against my parents or emotionally blackmail me. By the time I was 10 or 11 it was my decision not to see him any more. He made me uncomfortable.

For a period of time he would come for my concerts and I would go over to say hello, but it would always be so melodramatic.

He had this circle of friends who believed his sob stories and had decided it was their job to reveal “the real truth” to me. I often get letters from all these people and respond to every one telling them to tell him how I feel about all that he is doing, and it irritates the crap out of me, because it is not fair or right or any of their business. I would be at a concert in London signing autographs or whatever and one such friend would come over and say very emotionally ‘He is here … Naren is here…’ He would create this weird environment and expected me to tip toe around my parents to go see him. It was all so stupid. No one in my family has ever made him feel unwanted or unwelcome. Like any one else, he can come and meet me in the open, but he doesn’t.

All the pictures you see on the internet are out of context and the right time line and removed from albums. One of the pictures is taken at the house of Bapi’s friend. It’s not even in his house. My mother actually bought that house, in spite of his claims to the contrary. She was so civil with him and dealt with everything with dignity. Why is he doing this, if he claims to love me?
I don’t bear him any ill will and I loved him as a kid. But I wish he would get help and counseling. It’s very unhealthy to hold on to grudges and talk about nothing else, but the past and distort facts even though it has been 20 years.

George Harrison was a beautiful man and the concert for George was cathartic for all of us. It was a lot of work as we ended up putting everything together in four days and we worked at an incredible pace. I love playing with other people because you become a part of a greater musical endeavor. Bapi wrote a beautiful piece for the concert and it all somehow came together. With that tribute we rejoiced and also were finally able to let go.

It seems a lot more valuable for me when I get something which I know is only just for me. Like the time I won the national Beta Conference representing the state of California, or when I won Homecoming Queen
 

it seems a lot more valuable for me when I get something which I know is only just for me. Like the time I won the national Beta Conference representing the state of California, or when I won Homecoming Queen

How was it foraying into acting? You did the Pamela Rooks film, “Dance like a Man” about the daughter of two dancers continuing the dream of her parents through her own to dance. I know you have trained in Bharat natyam.

Yes, but it was so long ago. The linear notes were in my head and I remembered the symbolic patters and hand movements, but I had to retrain physically to regain that comfort level because again I had not continued dance. The good thing was that I have faced the camera so often that there were no jitters there. As a result I could focus on the work at hand.

I enjoyed the experience, and felt that this was just the right film, and my role as a supporting actor just the right one to test the waters. It is not something I’m pursuing seriously. I have done a lot of readings but things have not worked out mainly because of my hectic tour schedule.

So has it been a blessing or a burden to be Ravi Shankar’s daughter?

I will be in India and Rise has just released there so I will be performing pieces from it then come back and complete my father’s festival of India tour. Then I will be headed for a world tour for Rise. Times have changed and I think it’s unhealthy to be obsessed with just one thing. I would go crazy.. I crave too many things, so I see myself doing a variety of things and as many interesting projects as possible.