Niladri Kumar

Niladri Kumar is known for his expansive modern sitar style, stretching the boundaries of classical music. Trained under his father, a disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar, he was recognised as a prodigy.

He has since developed an extraordinary technical command of his instrument, complete with dextrous double stops, whispering string bends, and rapid taans (melodic elaborations). He makes forays into film composition and is the inventor of the zitar – a hybrid of electric guitar and sitar. Today he tours extensively with Ustad Zakir Hussain’s groups as well as a solo artist.

Niladri Kumar performed at Darbar Festival in 2014 and 2016, sharing the stage with tabla maestros Subhankar Banerjee and Pandit Kumar Bose. In 2016, he was also part of the Universal Notes Ensemble, a unique collaboration featuring Rakesh Chaurasia, Jayanthi Kumaresh, Dr. S Karthick, Matthew Barley, and musicians from the Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2025, he returned to the Darbar stage, delivering a mesmerizing performance of Raags Jhinjoti, Bhairavi, and Gorakh Kalyan, accompanied by Satyajit Talwalkar.

“In Harry Potter, there’s a wand choosing scene where the wand and its user need to have a connect. The sitar too broadly works in a similar style. Only after the instrument and the artist warm up to each other, the musical spark begins and the magic starts to flow.”