Sitarist Anoushka Shankar announces India Tour as she marks 30 years of sharing her music on stage

Mumbai, 14^th October 2025: 11-time Grammy®️-nominated sitarist Anoushka Shankar celebrates 30 years of live performance with the announcement of her highly-anticipated India Tour in partnership with SkillBox. This milestone tour will begin in Hyderabad on 30^th January, followed by Bengaluru on 31^st January, Mumbai on 1^st February, Pune on 6^th February, Delhi on 7^th February, and Kolkata on 8^th February. Curated and produced by SkillBox and RedFM and presented by Kotak.

“Every performance in India feels deeply personal, but this tour comes at a particularly special moment. Together, we’ll mark 30 years of sharing my music on stage – three decades of growth, risk, and reinvention,” Anoushka says.

With this landmark tour, Anoushka not only celebrates three decades of pushing musical boundaries, but also comes full circle with the culmination of her Chapters trilogy, a body of work whose genesis began in India, and which she has been touring, to high critical acclaim, Chapter by Chapter across four continents over the last two years.

“This journey actually began in Goa three years ago with New Year’s Day journal entries mapping out a rough outline for the trilogy, and the first, experimental performances with a newly-formed band I would subsequently tour with whilst writing and releasing the Chapters. Since then, I’ve allowed the music to evolve with each show and each continent, flowing freely from release to release. Now, all three Chapters are out, the full story is told, and it’s time to close the Chapters circle and begin another. I can’t wait for audiences in India to hear this music in full,” she adds.

Anoushka Shankar’s Chapters trilogy – ‘Ch I: Forever, For Now,’ ‘Ch II: How Dark it Is Before Dawn,’ and ‘Ch III: We Return to Light,’ – was recorded in Berlin, California, and India respectively, reflecting her cross-cultural roots and evolution as an artist and an individual. The final Chapter, an emergence from darkness and healing into the bright light of day, was written in collaboration with virtuoso sarodist-composer Alam Khan – son of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and grandson of Ravi Shankar’s guru, the legendary Baba Aladdin Khan – and Sarathy Korwar, an inspiring composer, percussionist and treasured member of Anoushka’s band.

Anoushka has also come onboard as brand ambassador of Madhya Pradesh Tourism for its new campaign, ‘It All Began Here.’ Anoushka says, “It’s hard not to fall in love with Madhya Pradesh. Its landscapes and people and so beautiful and it’s a part of India I’ve always wanted to see. There is a personal connection as my father spent many years living in Maihar under the intensive tutelage of his guru, and it meant a lot to finally be standing on that same soil.” The film is directed by Ravi Jain and follows Anoushka as she performs across Madhya Pradesh’s breathtaking landscapes. The campaign’s soundscape has been crafted by Abhishek Arora based on an original melody by Anoushka, with creative input from Vishal Bhardwaj, bringing together music, poetry, and imagery. Coming to Madhya Pradesh is like coming back to your home and ‘Mann bhaya jo tu ghar aaya’ is the theme that the film promotes.

A trailblazer in global music and beyond, Anoushka is the youngest and first female recipient of the British House of Commons Shield, an Ivor Novello Award-nominee and an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music. The first Indian woman ever nominated for a Grammy and the first Indian artist to perform and present at the ceremony, she was also awarded an Honorary Degree in Music from Oxford University in 2024. Her creative freedom has inspired collaborations with acclaimed artists like Gorillaz, Herbie Hancock, Sting, Patti Smith, Norah Jones, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.