As far as musical families go, there are few in the world that are as illustrious as Hidayat Husain Khan's. A quick list of his relatives includes the who's who of Indian classical. There's his cousin, Nishad Khan, who plays the sitar so fast that his fingers blur as they move up and down the instrument. His brother, Shujaat, made a record that was good enough to be nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004. Then there's of course his father, Vilayat Khan, arguably the country's greatest ever sitar player alongside Pandit Ravi Shankar. In fact, going through his ancestry reveals seven generations of artistes who have consistently brought Indian classical music out of its constricted circles to give the art form a mass appeal it lacked earlier.

Yet, when we ask Khan whether the future generations in his family are taking up the musical mantle, he pooh-poohs the notion that there is any legacy that his younger kin need to carry forward. "Gharanas aren't like royal lineages. When my father passed away, there was no throne that I was put on and told that I am the king now, because with us, the lineage doesn't continue through the bloodline. It continues via talent. So I don't feel any such pressure and whoever among the family's students has the required capability will be the torchbearer in the future," the musician tells us over the phone, ahead of an intimate concert he will play in Mumbai.