There's little that is not known about Anoushka Shankar - a sparkling mix of glamour and pedigree in sophistication has made her the media's delight. Add to that the unorthodox life of a legendary father, sitar maestro and composer Ravi Shankar, and most of us know more about her life than we know about her music. She has been nominated for a Grammy this year, her second, and yet is Anoushka a seriously talented musician or is she a princess born with a silver sitar in her hands? CNN-IBN's Anuradha SenGupta give us a sense of what it is really like to be Anoushka Shankar.
Anuradha: What would winning the Grammy mean to you? Would it mean independence from Ravi Shankar's status? Would it mean more record sales or would it mean peer group approval? What does it really mean?
Anoushka: I would find it sad if winning an award is what meant peer approval or a career separate from my father. I don't see how in the world would an award mark that type of opinions of people. But what an award like Grammy 'would do' is, of course, be a big honour. It would be something that would make me very happy. And of course, the publicity that it gets you would mean more sales and more attention - all of those things. But it wouldn't be in any way a mark of my worth on an absolute level.
Anuradha: If I pick up a newspaper or if I put on the television, inevitably you are there. You see this sophisticated, in-control, talented, young, sexy person. Do you see that image as something that empowers you or do you see it as a liability sometimes?
Anoushka: You should look at it first of all as as something that I look at and see. I don't see myself with those words and with those descriptions. But, I don't see how these wonderful things that you are saying could be a liability.
Anuradha: Liability in the sense that they obscure from your craft, from your work.
Anoushka: That can be frustrating, in certain situations it can get frustrating. Because when you are only written about on things as what you are wearing, then the average person does not really know about what I do and I get frustrated sometimes. I do work really hard, I do a lot of things that I am very proud of. And I get seen as just this sort of sitar princess - fluffy, daughter of Ravi Shankar who gets it all easy. I really work very hard and that can get really frustrating. But like you said, you get written about so much, is also a good thing because people atleast know about you. They know you make music and that is a good thing. But those aren't the things that I take very seriously. It is not like I look at myself and I go "wow", I am this and that than the other.
Anuradha: I would.
Anoushka: But then I suppose you already should.
Anuradha: Are there two Anoushkas?
Anoushka: There are like five or six Anoushkas, are you kidding?
Anuradha: Very schizophrenic! So, it is not a minor problem?
Anoushka: No it's not. I am a Gemini. I am very much a Gemini.
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Anuradha: There is this Anoushka who wears gajra and the kanjivaram silk churidaar and plays sitar concerts, and then there is this Anoushka who likes electronic music and perhaps raves and silver mini skirts that drove her father nuts. So, there are many Anoushkas?
Anoushka: There are definitely many Anoushkas and I think, if we do not get very psychoanalytical, I grew up that way. I grew up in two countries at all times. I went to two schools when I was growing up at the same time, on the opposite ends of the planet. I played sitar and I played the piano, culturally there were mixes, then the public and the private life. There were always things that were to be dealt with by being different in different situations. Just the fact that I went to school in New Delhi and the States. You have a group of friends, you grow up together and develop together, the way any children do. But the way I would grow in Delhi would be different than the way I would grow in the States. It is a different set of friends, it is different experiences. And I would come back and without even knowing that I really did it, I would slip into a part of my persona that was being enhanced here and then I would go back there and be a different me. And it was only when I was about 14 and it was the first time that I had my best friend from the States come and visit me here in Delhi and all my friends became very uncomfortable because they did not know me. All of them thought I was being very strange. And that was when I realised that I had these parts of myself that I wasn't necessarily sharing with all sides of my life.
Anuradha: Did you find it difficult to make friends, because I think I mentioned earlier that how incredibly poised I find you and how perhaps you are more grown-up than other 24-year-olds.
Anoushka: I was always, throughout my life, more grown-up than most people of my age.
Anuradha: Is it also because of your father's life, your mother's life. The way they came together?
Anoushka: And also because I was raised as the only child, that makes a big difference. This was because I was more often thrust into their lives, than you are when you have siblings. So, from when I are very young, I was around older people. I was playing with the people who were much older, I was having serious conversations with people when I was very young, people who did not patronise me. Most of the people I was around were very creative, intelligent, passionate people, who treated me in that same way.
Anuradha: Do you think artistes have to operate with different social mores or norms. There is no value judgement here.
Anoushka: I don't think. And obviously we are both aware of what a broad generalisation this is, when we are talking about people. But I don't think that artistes operate on a different value system or moral system. But I do think that their lifestyle is so colourful and intense that things can happen more dramatically or more colourfully than they do for other people and can seem that way because of that.
Anuradha: There are more opportunities, in every which way.
Anoushka: Yeah, this is what we were talking about here. I suppose that the mind automatically goes to things like affairs and things like that. I don't think that an artiste is any more likely to have an affair than anyone who is going to the office everyday. I don't see that difference, but it is just a very dramatic life.
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Anuradha: An eclectic life can also become a very dissipated life.
Anoushka: Yes. I think I was lucky to receive the type of ground that I received as a kid and while growing up. I think that by nature now, I am so busy and I do so much, that when I don't, I don't feel guilty about vegetating for a while or very intensly partying or any of those things because I feel that slight level of entitlement, where I feel like I can look up in the morning and not feel like a loser if I did nothing one day. If I stay in bed all day, I don't feel guilty, because I know for the next two weeks I am not going to get any sleep. And for me the only threat that I have to be aware of is that level of discipline with something like practising, which is very important part of my life all the time. I have a tendency sometimes to come off a tour and feel so wiped out from the music that I don't even want to look at my instrument for a couple of weeks. And that can be something I have to work on a lot of times.
Anuradha: I must tell you that we have got viewer questions. Priya Sharma from Delhi wants to know, would you like to get into acting some day? She obviously hasn't seen Dance like a Man!.
Anoushka: Well, I have already done a film Dance like a Man, which I must say I did much more on a personal level than a professional level. It was really a lot about having fun, I was just that I wanted to check it out, I wanted to see what it was going to be like. The fact that it was about dancers appealed to me.
Anuradha: Did you like it after you saw it?
Anoushka: I did enjoy it. I do feel that I could go back and do it better. It was my only thing because it was my first time, I was shooting for may be 11 to 12 days, it was very quick. And if I am to do a film again, I would definitely do it at a time where I can devote more and put more into it cause I know I could do well.
Anuradha: Another viewer question. Hemant Mohan from Chennai wants to know, do you like it when people compare you to your father or does it pressurise you?
Anoushka: I understand it very well, so I don't mind it for the most part. It's only in any specific situation or with some specific person that it goes on past a certain point that it gets difficult. In an interview, for example, when people go on and on about whether I got into music because of my father? How do I feel on whether I am ever going to step out of his shadow? Do I think I can ever step out of his shadow? Does it scare me? Do I think it is a boon or a curse? There is this entire closet full of questions that I know by heart once people start. I wish people would understand that I mean it when I say that I am an individual. With full respect for my father, with full love for him, full closeness to him and full acknowledgement of music from him. It is now mine. I play because because I love it, I play because it makes me happy. No individual in the world can succeed as an artiste by trying to emulate someone else. You can learn from someone else and obviously have influences, but it has to be your own . And I try till I turn blue in the face in trying to explain to people that it is not about purposefully trying to prove or trying to step out of his shadow. I don't even see myself as being in his shadow. I am living my life. I happen to be his daughter. I can't change that, I don't want to change that. So, I, of course, understand that the level of comparison and a certain amount of people coming and watching a show and wanting to see if I can live up to something. But in context, I think is important.
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Anuradha: If I was to embellish that or take that a little further, your father had to struggle a lot longer, isn't it?
Anoushka: You have to understand what you mean by struggle. What is struggle? Is it making name? Is it making money? Is it the fact that no matter how long I have a career, I am always going to have to prove myself to people. I could be 50, I could have won 50 Grammys, I could have sold platinum records and I am still going to be sitting here going, "I really am a good musician, please believe me". Because there is going to be this whole group of people who just say, "Ah! Obviously if I had him as a teacher, I would have done that too." And that is a struggle in its own way too. There is give and take in every situation and I think people have to keep that in mind.
Anuradha: Meera Gupta from Lucknow wants to know, what sort of relation do you share with Norah Jones? I think you should ask them to buy your book. You have very openly shared a lot of information about yourself.
Anoushka: I was raised that way I suppose, I was raised in a family that said that you have to be yourself and you have nothing to hide. And obviously having things personal or public is very different. But for the most part being in a rather controversial situation.
Anuradha: You said that you belong to a family that is quite a soap opera, which is unusual, you get used to certain things. Right?
Anoushka: Yeah, I believe I said that at some point. Just by the nature of my father. You know, it is a very dramatic history that he has. You look at his life and it is quite unreal that it is one person.
Anuradha: Do you want to answer Meera Gupta? What kind of a relation do you share with Norah Jones?
Anoushka: We're sisters and we are close. What else do I say? How else do you express your relationship with your sister? We are extremely close and we have been for ever since I can remember.
Anuradha: You want to tell Meera about the fact that she was called Geetali and you called her Geetu?
Anoushka: I call her Geanie because it is a combination of Geetali and Norah.
Anuradha: In today's day and age, siblings with less dramatic context would find it tough to be in touch. Would it make you want to be closer because of the dramatic context?
Anoushka: We met late in life, we weren't raised together. We met when I was 16 and she was 18 and we became very close instantly. And I suppose, like you said, it was because we didn't have each other at the beginning. There is definitely a real commitment to keeping each other in our lives.
Anuradha: What was the trigger or what compelled you to write this book about your father - Bapi - The Love of My Life?
Anoushka: It is a very unexiting story because at the beginning it was the publishing company that came and asked me if I could make this book. But I said "yes" because I think it was an interesting way to tell his story. Simply because he is someone that people write about so much. But having it from my perspective humanises him a little bit and gives a different colour to everything that is being talked about.
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Anuradha: There was a biography of Annapurna Devi's that was out recently. The picture that the book paints of your father is very different from the picture that you paint. My question is that do children really get to ever see their parents as people or is it really the relationship that you finally see?
Anoushka: Well, if I answer that question I don't want it to be taken in the context of that book. But in general, whenever you know anyone, it is a coloured view that you have. But then, what isn't? I don't necessarily know that someone looking from a bird's eye perspective knows the motivation behind things and can may be judge actions more harshly than when one understands the situation. I am not saying that I am not a biased person, everybody is. But I always try and do keep those perspectives in mind.
Anuradha: I read both the books and it doesn't matter to me, I don't know the man personally, but both the books paint a very different picture.
Anoushka: All I can say about that book and this is not something that I am saying about his ex-wife, but that book in particular should be taken with a pinch of salt. Because when you read it, the level of inaccuracies, with things like dates, with names, with spellings, with histories behind certain photographs, to me automatically show me the level of quality of the entire book. And I would be less inclined to believe the story, the entire story, when I see how little thought has been put into those type of details.
Anuradha: Pandit Ravishankar has had three children and it was with you, perhaps, that he actually managed to be a father and that too very uninhibitedly. In that sense you feel lucky? How does it feel to be talented, good-looking, heritaged and lucky?
Anoushka: My God! There is no princess life going on. As far as my reality goes, I definitely want to stress that I have been very lucky in my life. I have had a lot of advantages, but more than the advantages, I've known really amazing people. People in my family are very colourful, they are geniuses, like George Harrison, and many other people of that genre of legends. And knowing them as a part of the family takes away a lot of stardust. It is about normals then. It has been a very intense life, it has been a very colourful life. And I do feel very fortunate to have had it, but it does not make me feel as a person that is not walking on the ground.
Anuradha: Talking of your music, Voice of the Moon was I think really interesting because when it started, I sat up and wondered what was happening? It's misleading and that is why I find it interesting.
Anoushka: As a musician, I love that relaxed, slightly meditative, emotional space. And I was also a huge fan of that really-driven, really-passionate, rhythmic side of music as well. This piece is, as you said, it kind of goes in both of those directions. This piece is really misleading on another level because it sounds like completely accoustic with all of us playing together in a room. But it is actaually five instruments - it is Vikram Ghosh on tabla, me on sitar, Eric Philips, there is violin and santoor. It was all actually one by one, so it was very difficult to actually make it sound convincingly matching. I feel romantic about it. I don't necesarily have a picture of what that is, but it's just a space you tap into to play and it is just like sort of being very still and suddenly melancholic, a little sad and loving. It is all of this probably. This piece is actually fun to play live. There is a certain live energy that you can't replace, when we play this live it is so much fiery.
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Anuradha: I found your album extremely filmi. It could have been an original soundtrack. So, do you have pictures in your mind when you are composing?
Anoushka: No. I think I am very theatrical by nature. I love that intensity, I love that drama and a lot of that was sort of coming out in my music. I am very melody-based at the beginning, I am very intrinsically a very two- or four-line melody type of a person. That is where I start because I am instrumentalist. I am good at arrangements, I am good at playing keyboard type of things underneath melody and then start adding layers. I love rhythms so I often have to tone myself with that. A lot of things we had to take out actually, because half way through the album I realised that for the most part of it, it was very mellow album. And I let it sort of get energetic on a couple of pieces, but for the most part I kept it very relaxing. It was the achy-sweet feeling that I wanted the whole track to go to and that was always my preference point.
Anuradha: If I had to give you a choice between acting for a film and composing for a film, what would it be?
Anoushka: Right now, I would say acting in a film simply because I am composing and playing and that would be the variety for me. It would be fun to go act and experiment with that. But I really would want to do music for films. I think that would be something that I would really enjoy.
Anuradha: What kind of music do you listen to? I've heard you like electronic music.
Anoushka: I do, I do listen to a lot of this sort of very beautiful, ambient music often that has alot of the Indian influences. I listen to a lot of world music. World music is basically that does not fit into any of the category that is not from America or Europe. But having said that, I listen to a lot of Flamenco and certain African music, a lot of Brazilian music.
Anuradha: Do you listen to Hindi film music?
Anoushka: I will listen to it and enjoy it. But I don't really own it and play it myself.
Anuradha: Inevitably, in all your interviews, everything that you do, you end up talking about your dad, can we talk about your mom?
Anoushka: All my talking, all my fighting, all of my growing and questioning happened with my mother. She is a magical woman. I don't know anybody with her inexhaustible strength and with boundless love. She is a huge part of who I am and who I want to be in my life.
Anuradha: There is a huge age gap between you and your father. Is it something that makes you confront the fact he may not be there and also because he is a heart patient.
Anoushka: Growing up, I suppose I had to deal with that concept of mortality a lot quicker in relation to parents than a lot of people because of the amount of times that he has had bad health experiences and because of the 61-year-old age gap between us. And as a result of that, I have had to deal with that concept of mortality in general. All the family friends that one has in the world - the uncles, the aunts - in my father's case, they were all so much older. His family, his old friends, I have seen so many people pass on from since I was very young. It is something that you are aware of, it is not something that you think of all the time, but you are aware. Growing up, that definitely played a large part in my relationship with him. There have been periods when I was aware that I have to make the most of something because you don't know how long he is going to be there, around. You should give the most of what you can because you don't want to regret later that you haven't.
Anuradha: Thanks, Anoushka.
Anoushka: On that intense and heavy note.
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