Ravi Shankar, India's famous sitar player

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ravi Shankar was born in India in 1920 and came to prominence just as India gained independence from Britain in 1947. He was initially a dancer and then a virtuoso sitarist and composer, and became famous internationally because of his collaborations with Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison and the Beatles. Bobby Seagull's parents came from Kerala, and while Ravi Shankar's music came from the north, Bobby still remembers hearing him play growing up. There are early clips of Ravi Shankar explaining the sitar, plus George Harrison's account of their North American tour. Joining the conversation is biographer Oliver Craske, author of Indian Sun who knew Ravi well. He counts up in the programme how many relationships Ravi may have had. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ever wondered what the world's wealthiest people did to get so ridiculously rich?
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0:11.9	And then we decide if they are actually good, bad or just plain wealthy.
0:15.5	So if you want to know if Rihanna is as much of a bad guy as she claims,
0:19.2	or what Jeff Bezos really did to become the first person in history to pocket a hundred billion dollars,
0:24.6	listen to Good Bad Billionaire with me, Simon Jack, and me, Zingsing.
0:28.5	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:32.4	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:36.6	And now for a complete change of mood, country and culture.
0:40.2	Carl Wildman talks to Ravi Shankar,
0:42.9	perhaps the best known of all Indian virtuosos.
0:49.7	Yes, Ravi Shankar is our great life.
0:52.7	And here he is in 1966, describing the instrument he played.
0:57.8	And it's made of teak wood, four principal strings for melody.
1:04.4	Two for rhythm.
1:07.4	Makes it six actually for playing.
1:09.2	Yes.
1:09.5	And underneath there are 13 strings known as the sympathetic resonating strings.
1:14.3	That sounds fabulous.
1:15.0	But how do you play them? They're underneath.
1:16.7	Yes, I can.
1:20.0	Like your little finger of your right hand, underneath the main string.
	...

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