Multiple Grammy-nominated musician Anoushka Shankar has accused Air India of damaging her sitar during a recent flight, saying she was “devastated” by the condition of the instrument despite the airline charging a handling fee.
Shankar, daughter of the late sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a video showing cracks on her sitar. She said she discovered the damage after attempting to tune the instrument post-travel.
“First, I was looking at the top of my sitar and I thought it was really out of tune. After I tuned it, I picked it up to play and that’s when I realised…This was my first time flying Air India in a long time. You’re the country this music belongs to. This is the first time anything like this has happened to my instrument in 15 or 17 years,” she said in the video.
Pointing to the visible cracks, Shankar questioned the airline’s handling of the fragile instrument. “How have you done this? I have special cases, you charge a handling fee and yet you’ve done this?” she said.
In a caption accompanying the video, the sitarist wrote: “Devastated and truly disturbed by @airindia’s treatment of my sitar. How on earth does damage like this happen without willful disregard? It feels especially sad given that I’ve flown Air India after a long time, and it seems an Indian instrument can’t be safe with them- after all the thousand of flights taken on other airlines without even a peg going out of tune.”
Shankar’s post comes weeks after she earned multiple Grammy nominations for Chapter III: We Return to Light, her collaborative project with sarod player Alam Khan and percussionist Sarathy Korwar, which has been shortlisted in the Best Global Music Album category.