Anoushka Shankar Blasts Air India For Damaging Her Sitar Despite Charging Handling Fee: Devastated And Truly Disturbed

Sitarist Anoushka Shankar expressed her anger with Air India over the mishandling of her instrument during her travel. She publicly slammed the airline after discovering cracks in her sitar following a recent flight. Shankar is "devastated" and "disturbed" over the mishandling despite paying a handling fee to the airline. The musician said that this is the first time anything like this has happened to her instrument in 15 or 17 years.

Anoushka Shankar slams Air India after she receives broken sitar

Anoushka, the daughter of late sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, took to Instagram on Wednesday to narrate her ordeal. In a video she shared, the musician said, “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.”

Showing the cracks on her sitar in the video, she shared, “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…”

Questioning Air India, the internationally acclaimed musician asked, “How have you done this? I have special cases, you charge a handling fee and yet you’ve done this?”

“Devastated and truly disturbed by @airindia’s treatment of my sitar. How on earth does damage like this happen without wilful 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 thousands of flights taken on other airlines without even a peg going out of tune,” she captioned the video.

Fellow musicians react

Anoushka Shankar's friends and colleagues from the music industry expressed concerns over the issue. Papon wrote, "Genuine care feels so rare these days… it’s as if the very act of caring has faded from our lives! This is so heartbreaking @airindia (sic)". Vishal Dadlani commented, "God, that’s heartbreaking! I’m so sorry @anoushkashankarofficial !(sic)"

Grammy winner Ricky Kej wrote, "Lets not equate @airindia to India the nation. Air India is now owned by the TATAs who are literally running the airline into the ground, and ruining the reputation of the country. So sorry you had to go through this (sic)."