Anoushka Shankar calls out Air India for damaging her sitar, shares video: 'Devastated and truly disturbed'

The post quickly spread across social media and prompted strong reactions from artists and followers.

Acclaimed sitar player Anoushka Shankar said she was left “devastated” after discovering significant damage to her sitar following a recent journey with Air India. She shared a video of the cracked instrument on Instagram and criticised the airline for what she described as avoidable mishandling.

Posting the video online, she wrote: “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.”

In the accompanying video, Shankar said she initially assumed the instrument was simply “out of tune”, only later noticing the crack when preparing to play. She said: “First I was looking at the top of my sitar and thought it was really out of tune. After I tuned it, I picked it up to play and that’s when I realised.”

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A post shared by Anoushka Shankar (@anoushkashankarofficial)

She noted that she had chosen Air India after several years, adding: “This was my first time flying Air India in a long time. You are 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.”

Expressing disbelief, she asked: “How have you done this?” She added that she travelled with specialist protective cases and paid additional handling charges: “I have special cases, you guys charge a handling fee and yet you’ve done this.”

The post quickly spread across social media and prompted strong reactions from artists and followers. Comedian Zakir Khan commented: “This is extremely heartbreaking!” Another user wrote: “@airindia how dare you!! You have no idea the hours and weeks and money we spend making sure these irreplacable sitars are safe. Truly shocked and saddened by this.”

"Every time I have to travel with @airindia I am SCARED for my luggage and my life! And of course their bad service overall! Sad to see this," a user remarked.

Oscar winner Ricky Kej added, "So sorry you had to go through this."

Shankar is one of the world’s most recognised classical musicians, known for her work on the sitar as well as her cross-genre collaborations. The Grammy-nominated artist is the daughter of the late Pandit Ravi Shankar and has performed internationally for over two decades.