Rishab Rikhiram Sharma is a 23-year-old with big shoes to fill. He’s the fourth generation of the renowned Rikhi Ram family, known for making classical instruments, and was also the youngest disciple of late Pt Ravi Shankar. He’s now touring India and promoting his pet project Sitar for Mental Health. As part of the tour, he was in Bengaluru last week where he performed at Bira91 Taproom and the Bangalore International Centre.
“This is the second India tour that I’m doing in less than six months. It’s just great to perform live once again after two years. Like most artistes, I too had a difficult time coping with the pandemic when we had to perform just in front of a camera. It gave me a lot of anxiety. That’s when I reached out to my audience on social media and realised that my music has been helping them overcome their issues as well,” he says while explaining the concept of Sitar for Mental Health.
By using social media as a way to vent his frustration and take care of his own mental health, his followership jumped from 4,000 followers to 49.7k followers over time. “Before the pandemic, I was at the peak of my career where I performed for more than 3,000 people in stadia abroad. I was the only solo sitarist to play when Prime Minister Modi came to New York too. So, going from that to just seeing yourself every day definitely took a toll on my mental health,” Sharma says.
As for his performance in Bengaluru recently, it was probably one of his biggest shows. On the occasion, he paid tribute to his guruji Pt Shankar on his birth anniversary. “The first half focussed on meditation while the second half saw local artistes from the city jam together,” Sharma explains, adding that it was a feel-good event where even Pink Panther music was played. “There’s also an interactive session where I asked the audience to turn to their sides and talk about their feelings to a stranger. It makes for a great ice-breaker and you end up making a new friend,” he says.
Sharma’s plan of introducing the sitar with modern music is a way to get more people interested in the instrument. He explains, “It’s a need of the hour, to be honest. During the ’60s, there was a boom in classical music abroad. But after guruji passed away, it took a backseat. We need another maestro like him. I’m doing my best to reach out to more audiences and interact in a way that relates to them while still keeping up with the principles of playing the instrument.”
He’s currently working on a sitar lo-fi EP which hasn’t been done before. He has already recorded five tracks which he hopes to release by May. Sharma is also working on his other project called Navaras which is a theory of nine emotions. “I’m done with six tracks now and the remaining three will be out this year,” he says. But the most exciting project he’s going to do is a collaboration with the gully rap scene in Mumbai in May. “I’m going to freestyle the sitar while the rappers can battle it out. To get sitar into the mainstream space while preserving its purity is a way to show its true form,” he adds.
Working with Pt Ravi Shankar
Rishab Sharma started training with famed musician Ravi Shankar at the age of 10. “He was very clever with his words. He was strict when we were practising but soon after, he was friendly and would even ask questions about who my girlfriend was,” he laughs.