Ravi Shankar wanted to be a dancer
December 12, 2012  12:00
More on Pandit Ravi Shankar: The Bharat Ratna awardee started as a dancer with the group of his brother Uday Shankar but gave it up in 1938 to learn sitar under Allauddin Khan. During the tour of Uday's dance group in Europe and America in the early to mid-1930s, Shankar discovered Western classical music, jazz, and cinema, and became acquainted with Western customs.

The music doyen composed his first raga in 1945 and embarked on a prolific recording career. In the 1950s and 1960s, he became the unofficial international ambassador for Indian music, enthralling audiences in the USSR, Japan, North America.

However, it was his association with Harisson that got him international stardom. In the 1970s, they collaborated on two albums and toured the USA together.
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