“What, then, can be said about the much talked-about paradigm shift taking place in Sitar music? Could it be happening already, but in a territory that we do not classify as “classical” music? Could we be looking for it in the wrong place? This is a possibility considering the impenetrable wall erected by the Ravi Shankar/Vilayat Khan/ Nikhil Banerjee generation. Their yardstick of musicianship may appear, in contemporary perception, either obsolescent, dispensable or unsaleable.”
In search of an answer, I now review YouTube recordings of a few successful and emerging contemporary Sitarists. The four artists I consider are: Shujaat Khan (born:1960), Niladri Kumar (born: 1973) Anoushka Shankar (born: 1981), and Rishabh Sharma (born: 1998).
The group of Sitarists chosen for this study is purposive, and not exhaustive of significant talent on the contemporary stage. They merit consideration because each of them has a recognizable pedigree, with which their musical orientations may be difficult to reconcile. They are analysed in sequence of their years of birth. The sequence may not, therefore, be inferred to imply their rating as musicians.
Shujaat Khan
The inclusion of Shujaat Khan in this study may seem inappropriate because he established himself as a worthy heir to the legacy of his father. Ustad Vilayat Khan between 1990 and 2000. Even during that apparently “orthodox” phase of his evolution, he exhibited a tendency towards exploration of new musical path… tilting perhaps towards populism.
During his interview with me on January 16, 2004, a few months before his father’s demise, Shujaat observed:
“With the passage of time, an entirely new generation of listeners has emerged. To them, Ustad Vilayat Khan or Pandit Ravi Shankar or Ustad Ali Akbar Khan – though they are all alive – are only as real as Mahatma Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru. These audiences are willing to accept me for what I am.”
Even today, Shujaat’s recent “orthodox” performances in circulation on pre-recorded media – few in number – delight admirers of his father, Ustad Vilayat Khan. However, the overwhelming majority of his recent uploads on YouTube (2015-2025) are sufficient to establish him as the forerunner of our “New Wave” Sitarists.
Shujaat’s 21st century music revolves around his competence as a singer of popular middle-brow poetry (Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi) like Ghazals, Bhajans, Chaiti-s, Thumris, Folk songs, and Sufiana Kalaam-s. The Sitar follows the vocals with charming precision, lacing the rendition occasionally with engaging melodic improvisations. Occasionally, his recordings feature additional--but subordinated -- support of a Santoor, or flute, or even a synthesizer. His vocal repertoire is largely raga-neutral, and composed mostly in medium-to-brisk tempo Keherva, but occasionally also in the common enough Jhaptala or Roopak. For rhythmic accompaniment, he routinely deploys two Tabla players, but sometimes a single Tabla player along with a Dholak player.
This configuration of musical elements deserves interpretation. (1) This music is, essentially, a vocal performance, with the Sitar functioning as melodic accompaniment, though a little more prominently than a Sarangi or Harmonium support in a Khayal performance. (2) The occasional use of additional melodic support is suggestive of “orchestral intent”. (3) The commanding musical idea of the performance is, in most cases, is not a raga, but a raga-neutral composition. (4) His choice of compositions, being set to middle-to-brisk tempo, obviates the need for slow-tempo and ultra-brisk treatment of the melodic framework, thus taking the music categorically out of the established raga-presentation protocol for the Sitar. (5) The use of multiple percussion accompaniments enhances the presence of rhythm in the totality of the musical experience far beyond the established configuration of musical elements in Sitar music.
The success of Shujaat’s recent deviationism can be judged by the viewership data available on YouTube in public domain. I tend to use an “Audience Engagement Factor” (AEF = Total views reported on the sample date / Number of years since the recording was uploaded). I selected – randomly
– 15 uploads of Shujaat’s sitar performances, and 15 of him as a singer and calculated the aggregate AEF separately for the two groups. The results are revealing. Shujaat, the singer, engages audiences on a massively higher scale than Shujaat, the Sitarist. The absolute numbers are not important. The orders of magnitude are convincing. (See Table)
Shujaat is a fine vocalist and a brilliant Sitarist; and, so was his father, though at a different level. With similar equipment, Shujaat has created a personal genre of “Sitar Music” unlike anything his father has rendered in his 60+ year performing career. Shujaat’s success has given younger sitarists the confidence to shape deviant “Personal Musical Statements”.
Niladri Kumar
Niladri is the son of Kartik Kumar, a senior disciple of Ravi Shankar. In the early 2000s, he exploded upon the Sitar scene with his formidable command over the instrument. Even in his early days into the profession, performing the orthodox idiom of raga-rendition, he displayed a penchant for the kaleidoscopic and dramatic patterning of melody, and executed it with dazzling virtuosity. The success of his musical inclinations with Indian as well as foreign audiences encouraged him to explore the potential of modern sound-engineering.
At some stage, he felt that sound engineering could enhance the impact of his music far beyond the possibilities of the traditional acoustic Sitar (a self-resonating instrument). To unleash his musical vision, he designed an electronic instrument. His contraption, called “Zithar”, is a cross between a Sitar and an electric guitar. Its acoustic experience can be similar to that of an electric guitar, but its melodic capabilities can shame the world’s greatest guitarist because of the string-deflection facility of a Sitar. It does not have Sitar-type sympathetic strings because sound-engineering makes them redundant. As a bonus, the Zithar is also a more portable instrument for a jet-setting Sitarist than a traditional acoustic Sitar, and can be played sitting on a chair. This invention gave Niladri access to the entire power of sound-engineering, and enabled him to deliver an acoustic experience never heard before on the Sitar.
I surveyed 33 uploads of Niladri’s recordings on YouTube to understand different facets of his musicianship. Once again, I have used the AEF (Audience Engagement Factor) measure as a guide.
His invention intended to express his musical vision more convincingly, or give him access to diverse genres or audiences not addressed adequately. More specifically, the Zithar brought the universe of “Fusion” and “World Music” within easier reach. In the sample uploads, Niladri is observed performing with “multiple accompaniments” -- Synthesizer, Sarod, Mrudanga, Morsing, Guitar, and Drum-sets. No clear indication of value addition is available from the AEF data: (See Table).
In the orthodox format (Sitar + single Tabla accompanist), Niladri appears almost as convincing as he does in the Fusion/ Semi-fusion (multiple accompanist) format. This suggests that Niladri’s style, supported by electronic wizardry, has by now cultivated a distinct constituency, which values his musicequally in either format. Support for this possibility is available from the AEF numbers for Raga-based and Raga-neutral musical content. (See Table). 
Interestingly, His Raga-based content fares considerably better on the AEF measure than his Raga-neutral musical content. This could be because his choice of Raga-s is biased towards those featured primarily in semi-classical music. A majority of the uploads feature popular romantic Raga-s like Jhinjhoti, Tilak Kamod, Bhairavi, and Manjh Khamaj, and are rendered mostly in medium tempo. In the sample uploads, I encountered only two recordings of relatively serious Raga-s: Shree and Kaunsi Kanada. The full-fledged orthodox Raga-presentation protocol of Sitar music is encountered only once. It therefore appears that Niladri’s music is not about what he plays, but how he engages audiences.
Anoushka Shankar
Anoushka is an English-American Sitarist, and daughter of the legendary Pandit Ravi Shankar, and his second wife, Sukanya Rajan. During her early years in England, she is reported to have trained in Western music, later to be groomed as a Hindustani Sitarist by her father and his disciple, Gaurav Majumdar in the US. Not surprisingly, therefore, her career as a Sitarist has flourished primarily in the US and Europe.
I reviewed 35 uploads of her music with an average YouTube exposure life of 5 years (Range: 1-16 years) as on January 25, 2026. A majority of recordings are of live concerts in the US or Europe. A couple of uploads belong to some of the albums she has released. Based on the sample reviewed, the following observations can be made.
Her musical personality has a strong bias in favour of orchestral or duet arrangement. Her ensemble can be as small as a chamber-music suite, a quartet, or as large as a symphony orchestra. Only 4 of the 35 reviewed uploads feature vocals as a part of orchestral presentation, with vocals provided by others. Her chamber music/ quartet format presentations frequently feature bass, flute, violin, guitar, clarinet, keyboards, xylophone, piano, sarod, cello, clarinet, or shehnai for melodic/ harmonic support. Percussion support, where used, is a western drum-set, hand-pan, Tabla, Mrudangam and, occasionally, also Morsing (mouth harp). Very few of the uploads reviewed can be considered orthodox -- Sitar accompanied by percussion (Tabla or Mridangam) accompaniment, with an optional Tanpura in the background. In a few cases, her solo renditions lack even percussion accompaniment. In almost all orchestral arrangements. which are obviously pre-composed and rehearsed to perfection, she is the lead performer, and appears to retain a semblance of freedom to improvise her sections.
Her inclination towards collaborative music-making is understandable considering her training in Western music, and consequent comfort with Western notation systems. It is also pragmatic considering the cultural environment and the acoustic ambience in which she is pursuing her career. This pragmatism is also reflected in the titles/ themes under which Anoushka presents her items. The Raga pantheon of Hindustani music appears to guide her compositions even in orchestral presentations. However, she considers it unnecessary to allow the uniquely Indian idea of “Raga-ness” to erect a barrier to the acceptance of her music. Her compositions are cleverly titled. A few examples: “We return to love”, “Daybreak”, “New Dawn”, “Crossing the Rubicon”, “In the End”.
Of the 35 uploads reviewed, as many as 24 recordings exhibit a clear presence of Raga-based melody. Admittedly, the choice of Raga-s is biased towards romanticist/ popular Raga-s like Manjh Khamaj, Bhairavi, Hansadhwani, Charukeshi, Yaman, and Jhinjhoti. She does not, however, shy away from presenting her music even in more serious Raga-s like Jog, Shree or Puriya Dhanashri. Her thematic titles ensure that her music will face minimal aesthetic resistance from her audiences.
In its totality, Anoushka’s music represents a substantial advancement towards shaping/ altering the experience of Hindustani music for global audiences. Its underlying “Indian-ness” is apparent to those who will look for it, and irrelevant to those who can engage with her music as, simply, music.
Rishabh Rikhiram Sharma
Rishabh is the New York-based son of the Sanjay Sharma, partner in the famous Delhi-based firm of master-luthiers, Rikhiram & Sons. His profile on his website describes him as a Sitarist, composer and producer. Rishabh studied the Sitar from childhood under Parimal Sadaphal, a disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar. The child’s potential was soon noticed by the legendary maestro, who admitted him formally into the Ravi Shankar lineage. Rishabh went on later to study Music Production at the City University of New York, acquiring valuable skills for a contemporary musician.
Interestingly, Rishabh has deviated from the Indian convention of using his father’s first name (Sanjay) as his middle name. Instead, he adopted the name of his great-grandfather, Rikhiram, who founded the firm in Lahore (now in Pakistan) before moving to Delhi after partition. The “Rikhiram” brand could have given Rishabh, a luthier’s son, easier entry into a competitive Sitar market populated by premium-commanding hereditary musicians. His talent did the rest. The astronomical viewership numbers this 28-year-old musician commands on YouTube suggest the magnitude of his following.
I have reviewed 30 video uploads of Rishabh on YouTube. He acquits himself honourably as a Sitarist as well as a vocalist. Of these 30, 21 uploads feature him as a Sitarist, 7 feature him as a Sitarist and a vocalist, and only 2 feature him only as a pure vocalist. This ratio suggests that, despite the endearing quality of his vocalism, he has positioned himself primarily as a Sitarist who can sing.
Of his 21 Sitar-dominant recordings, most of which have a small supporting ensemble, as many as 13 recordings exhibit a clear presence of Hindustani Raga-s. The list includes Adana, Shankara, Puriya Kalyan, Tilak Kamod, Shuddha Sarang, Manjh Khamaj, Kedar, Bihag, Hameer. Khamaj, Kausi Kanada and Nat Bhairav. The remaining 8 recordings feature Raga-neutral musical content, with a populist stance. These include his own compositions, popular Indian film songs, and themes from popular international shows/films such as Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones. Amongst the “New Wave” Sitarists, Rishabh could have travelled the farthest into populism.
In this group of 21 Sitar-dominant recordings, I found only 7 uploads featuring the orthodox format of a Sitar recital accompanied only by a Tabla, and occasional Tanpura. Most of them are recordings of live concerts performed over the years. They feature a reasonable variety of Raga-based musical content with an average duration of 17 minutes each. Stylistically, the music is thoroughbred Ravi Shankar idiom. However, none of the recordings feature the complete Raga-presentation protocol covering the three-tier Alap, followed by Vilambit and Drut compositions. The telescoping of the Raga-presentation into an undemanding “capsule” could be one of the dimensions of the paradigmatic shift taking place now.
The more interesting facet of Rishabh’s musicianship are uploads which present him simultaneously as a sitarist and a vocalist, as they may hold the key to his popularity. Most of these are listed on YouTube as “Official Music Video”. In these, he demonstrates his professional competence as a music producer. These are obviously studio recordings, though some are presented as stage performances. Several of them have been shot against thematically appropriate backdrops like the river Ganga in Varanasi, or stunning images of Mount Kailasa. Some of the numbers exhibit the presence of Raga-based melody, while others are raga-neutral. These videos feature Rishabh on the sitar and vocals, accompanied by a minimal ensemble: guitar, drum-sets, flute, tabla, castanets, keyboards. In obvious awareness of the attention-span of Internet audiences, the average duration of these videos has been restricted to 3.2 minutes.
The titles of these videos are even more interesting. Some examples: Chanakya, Shiva Kailasa, Rosalyn, Mata Kalika, Ranjhana, Belua (a Himachali folk song). Despite the fact that Rishabh is competing in the global market, he appears to make no attempt to conceal the essential “Indian-ness” of the music, or his own religious passion. His ethnically transparent stance becomes boldly evident in the two videos featuring him as a solo vocalist. In one of them, he is seen chanting the famous Shiva Tandava Stotram, composed by Ravana, before a delirious audience in Nepal. On another, he sings a Shiva Stuti in Raga Shankara accompanied by a flute and the Tabla.
The “New Wave”
It is not necessary to compare the four Sitarists reviewed here on their respective approaches to musicianship or the magnitude of their success. They cannot be compared also because they belong to different generations. If 30 years constitutes a generation, the senior-most Shujaat (born: 1960) is almost the “father-generation” to the youngest Rishabh Sharma, a millennial (born:1998). Each of these musicians is a unique product of his/her background and successful with the audiences he/she addresses or confronts. What is common to them is that they are all Sitarists, and their music can indicate the direction in which Sitar music is drifting. Some tentative observations can be made on these directions.
(a) The elaborate sophistication of the Raga-presentation protocol practiced by the Ravi Shankar/ Vilayat Khan/ Nikhil Bannerjee generation, with each Raga lasting 30-45 minutes, may be heading for extinction. Amongst the elements of the orthodox protocol, the Vilambit and Drut+Jhala may be facing faster obsolescence, leaving medium-to-brisk tempo presentation as the primary residual/ substitute.
(b) The Sitar is no longer seen strictly as a solo instrument. It has the potential to engage with newer/ larger audiences as an orchestral instrument, accompanied by vocal renditions or Indian/western/fusion ensembles.
(c) The entry of orchestral arrangements tends to limit the degree of improvisation permissible, and to drive Sitar music towards pre-composed musical presentations. Orchestration also tends to confine compositions to the simpler Tala-s, thus draining the musical culture of the rhythmic variety available in Hindustani music.
(d) The Raga-based ethnicity of Hindustani music is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the engagement of audiences – especially in an orchestral context -- as long as the musical experience is of high quality.
(e) Maintaining high-quality musical experiences, especially within orchestral contexts, requires Sitarists to get intimately involved with sound-engineering technologies.
(f) The Internet, but more specifically YouTube, has become the primary medium for reaching and servicing audiences. The faceless global audience accessible through YouTube constitutes a total de-contextualization of traditional art forms everywhere. This phenomenon could be driving Sitar music towards a comprehensive de-culturation.
It is impossible to judge how transient of stable these trends are. The prevailing culture of any era is, after all, a manifestation of the ongoing interaction between several co-existing generations. We know that the Ravi Shankar/ Vilayat Khan/ Nikhil Bannerjee model of Sitar music withstood at least five decades of demographic change. Today’s young Sitarists are expressing and addressing the aesthetic sensibilities of an India with a median age of around 30, rising by 4 years every decade. By 2050, the median will touch 50. Can today’s musical tendencies remain viable for another quarter of the century? Nobody knows.
© Deepak S. Raja 2026
Written February 1, 2026, YouTube data as on January 15, 2026.
