Anoushka Shankar slams Air India after she receives broken sitar: 'You guys charge handling fees and have done this'

Anoushka Shankar

Renowned musician Anoushka Shankar took to her social media handle to express her deep disappointment at receiving a broken sitar after a flight on Air India. The sitarist said that she flew on the airlines for the first time in a long time and the experience turned deeply disturbing for her. She said that she has flown with her sitar for years but never faced any such thing.

Anoushka Shankar's sitar damaged

On Wednesday, taking to her Instagram, Shankar shared a video detailing the entire damage occurred in her instrument, "First, I was just looking at the top of my sitar and I thought it was like really out of tune. And after I tuned it, I picked it up to play, and that's when I realised this was my first time flying Air India in a long time. The country this music belongs to. And this is the first time anything like this has happened to my instrument in 15 or 17 years. How have you done this? I have special cases. You guys charge a handling fee and yet you've done this," Anoushka said in the video.

She wrote in the caption, "Devastated and truly disturbed by airindia's treatment of my sitar. How on earth does damage like this happen without willful 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 thousand of flights taken on other airlines without even a peg going out of tune."

Many musicians empathised with the sitarist. Vishal Dadlani commented, "God, that's heartbreaking! I'm so sorry"

Ayanna Witter-Johnson wrote, "Oh my love. This is heartbreaking. I'm so so sorry"

Comedian Zakir Khan commented, "This is extremely heartbreaking".

Anoushka's streak at Grammys

Anoushka, who performs across multiple genres and styles, classical and contemporary, acoustic and electronic, last month picked up multiple Grammy nominations at the 68th edition of the prestigious awards. Her single 'Daybreak' earned her a nomination for Best Global Music Performance, while her latest album 'Chapter III: We Return To Light' -- a collaboration with Alam Khan and drummer Sarathy Korwar -- secured a nomination for Best Global Music Album.