Sitar, Spirituality & Spectacle: Rishab Sharma | League of Excellence | THR India

A broken sitar sent back from Switzerland. A 10-year-old boy who wasn't allowed to touch it. And a life's mission born from that first moment. Rishab Rikhiram Sharma — sitarist, composer, and the youngest disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar — sat down with Anupama Chopra for THR India's League of Excellence powered by BMW India to talk about how a familiar surprise with a broken instrument turned into sold-out global tours, a solo performance at the White House, and the founding of Sitar for Mental Health — a movement rooted in the ancient tradition of Raag Chikitsa that has touched millions.

From his father Sanjay Sharma's strict reverence for the instrument to fighting the stigma around the word "mental" with his own parents, from sketching his stage outfits to micromanaging every detail of his immersive two-hour shows, Rishab opened up about what it takes to make the sitar cool without ever trying to. He spoke about the Gen Z turn toward wellness and spirituality, why he doesn't feel the pressure to drop an album despite not having one, how AI can't replicate what comes from a real human heart, and why he believes talent is the accumulated karma of multiple lifetimes. This is a conversation about tradition, reinvention, and the courage to call something exactly what it is.