Making space for Indian classical music at Lollapalooza India 2025 

The Sunday afternoon heat was oppressive, but the many music lovers who had walked a couple of kilometres to attend the Lollapalooza India 2025  at Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi Race Course, wearing caps of different shapes and colours, did not seem to mind. Most of them were in their 20s or 30s, waiting to hear American rock band Green Day, Norwegian singer Aurora and Kerala rapper Hanumankind, who stormed the global charts last year with ‘Big Dawgs’. Their primary tastes were different, but they listened patiently, and clapped regularly, when sitar exponent Niladri Kumar did a 40-minute fusion set. BookMyShow’s Lollapalooza India 2025 was held on March 8 and 9. This was the festival’s third edition in Mumbai, and encompassed various genres such as rock, pop and electronic dance music to desi rap and Indian indie. Niladri’s appearance came a year after sitar player Anoushka Shankar performed at the festival.

Though he did take out his traditional sitar for a few minutes, Niladri mostly played the zitar (electric sitar), his creation. Accompanied by tabla player Satyajit Talwalkar, drummer Gino Banks and keyboardist Agnelo Fernandes, he displayed a lot of energy and spontaneity, and occasionally, his humour. After playing a 10-minute introductory piece, he said, “That was only our sound-check. The real concert begins now.”

It wasn’t a traditional classical concert by any means. A large chunk of it consisted of improvisation spells peppered with familiar phrases —from ‘Raghupati Raghav’ and ‘Do Lafzon Ki’ to ‘Smoke On The Water’ and ‘Fur Elise’. The 51-year-old musician knew the pulse of the audience, and his focus was to keep them entertained with his zitar, even if seasoned ears found his efforts gimmicky. The broader idea was to tempt them to listen to more Indian classical music in future. 

As Niladri said, “Lollapalooza is a landmark event that happens in the musical calendar of Mumbai, and it’s a place where many international acts perform. Many youngsters come there to see them. But, I want the crowd that comes here to also listen to the genre I perform. I hope the music has an impact on them.”

Niladri’s performance took place on Ustad Zakir Hussain’s birthday. The sitarist has travelled extensively with the late tabla legend, doing numerous classical and fusion shows. He was also a part of Zakir’s Triple Concerto for the tabla, sitar and the flute, along with Rakesh Chaurasia and the Symphony Orchestra of India in 2023. “So much has already been said (about Zakir’s passing), and without being repetitive, the only thing I’ll say is that the thrill of pure, true improvisation has been lost,” said Niladri.

Niladri was part of Ustad Zakir Hussain’s Triple Concerto for the tabla, sitar and the flute, along with Rakesh Chaurasia

One of Niladri’s major shows this year was his classical recital at London’s Barbican Centre on February 11, where he was accompanied on the tabla by Satyajit Talwalkar. He recalled, “We faced a challenge because the show was slotted on a weekday, especially for a place that large in size. But we managed to pull that off and the hall was packed. The venue has a certain grandeur and it was great to hear the applause that keeps ringing in your ears long after the show ends.”

Niladri was trained in the sitar by his father Pt Kartick Kumar, a disciple of the legendary Pt Ravi Shankar. While he continues to play the instrument in its traditional form, he also felt the need to develop a variant that could offer a newer style. That’s how the zitar came into being. “It’s not like  I woke up one day and the zitar came into my hands. The process took  a few years, beginning with when I started experimenting with microphones way back in 1998. However, the initial attempts did not give me what I wanted in terms of sound.”

In 2001, Niladri started experimenting with magnetic pick-ups. He explained, “This is basically an electric pick-up. Two decades ago, it wasn’t easy to buy sound equipment here. You either travelled abroad to buy, or asked someone to get it for you. So, it took time to get what I wanted. The first time I placed an electric pick-up was on my father’s sitar. He had been advised some rest, and I took his sitar without prior permission. I remember removing the sympathetic strings and sticking the Velcro and progressing as I went along.”

On a visit to Delhi, he visited the musical instrument shop Rikhi Ram. He said, “They were advertising something called the baby sitar or travelling sitar. It aroused my interest. So, I bought that sitar, and converted it by changing the configuration of strings. It was more practical. I could now travel with two sitars – my own traditional sitar and the smaller one which I named the zitar.”

The new creation, however, looked similar in colour and shape to the traditional sitar. That’s when Niladri decided to give it a new colour. Painting Indian instruments was not really popular, because they probably thought it would tamper with the sound.  But, I tapped into the science I studied in school and college to make sure the sound wasn’t affected. I probably would never own a Ferrari, but I thought I could colour the instrument in that — hence, red.”

Niladri believes collaborations add a new dimension to music 

Niladri said he wasn’t sure whether the zitar had succeeded in attracting a new audience to classical music. “But I do know it has succeeded in making many musicians take it up, in some other form or shape or colour or name. And since many musicians have taken it up, many makers have also been making the zitar under some shape or colour or name.”

Besides short tours of the US and Turkey, Niladri has also been in talks for some collaborations. “I believe a collaboration should add a new dimension and create something that hasn’t been done before. In the long run, I also want to write a concerto, where I will create music for the sitar and an orchestra.” 

Niladri hoped Lollapalooza would give him the impetus to come up with  a new repertoire. A surprise might just be in store.