Rishab Rikhiram Sharma: Bollywood Music Was Never Original, They've Always Been Picking And Mixing

Talking to Prateek Sur, Rishab Rikhiram Sharma speaks up about the ‘Sitar For Mental Health’ initiative, how mental awareness can be increased in Indian households, how music is an important part in creating this awareness, the losing art form of Sitar, Bollywood music in general, and lots more. Excerpts:

Your initiative ‘Sitar For Mental Health’, tell us a bit about it.

‘Sitar For Mental Health’ is my initiative to promote mental health well-being and generate more awareness about the topic by destigmatising the conversation. I believe music has always been my coping mechanism to deal with mental health problems and whatever I’m going through. ‘Sitar For Mental Health’ events are multi-sensory-immersive experiences helping bridge ancient practices of sound and energy medicine using traditional Indian classical music, designed to invoke states of deep reflection, receptivity, and introspection.

Mental health is a very broad aspect. Which aspects do you cover?

I'm not a therapist, I don't claim to be a therapist, even like a music therapist, because they also have to undergo a lot of training. With ‘Sitar For Mental Health’, I wanted to share my story and fight my battles of mental health and performance anxiety initially, and then once I started doing that, it just became a really big thing. And we formed a community around it. And thousands and lakhs of people started following me and supporting me and encouraging me to keep doing it because my music made them feel a certain way. So, that was a very encouraging thing. And that's why I still, to this day, I'm continuing with ‘Sitar For Mental Health’. I truly feel that when Indian classical music or like sitar music is presented in the right manner, it can have a lot of benefits on your mental health and especially when mixed with meditation, it does wonders. I am no expert on the topic of mental health. I've gone to therapy and have spoken to a lot of psychologists. I also try to bring them on to my shows, so we can actually educate people about mental health. And it's best coming from a psychologist rather than me. So those are the aspects I cover. I mean, I usually just play music and share my story. I share my struggles in mental health because I feel like conversations are very important. You know, when you're trying to destigmatise something, to openly talk about it should be normalised as well.

It is said that music has healing powers. In which way do you think music heals someone?

I feel like in order for you to be healed, you have to be sensitive towards music in the first place. Because I feel like music helps some people and for some people it doesn't do anything so for those people it could be like another art form like drawing and dancing. I don't know if it's running. So, it could be anything that could heal you or you know make you and put you in a better mental space. So, one should be sensitive towards music and if not sensitive, then appreciative towards the music that you know, they like listening to this music. First, you have to just figure out what you like, and if you liked Sitar, and you come to my concert, you would feel good because, you know the ragas, then we also do breathing exercises. So, all of this is like a package together and is a wonderful experience.

Mental health has been a taboo topic in Indian households. What do you think is the root cause of this? Why don’t people want to talk openly about mental health?

See, I think there are several reasons. One would be the stigma and the second would be the lack of awareness. Third would be traditional beliefs often like mental health problems, as seen as a failure to meet expectations. And if you're having mental health issues you would bring shame upon the family or whatever. And I would say fourth would be lack of resources, people don't know they are not exposed to it. Sometimes you don't know the means, like where to go and seek out help. Also, I think it would be just like a cultural barrier, it could be seen as a sign of weakness. But mainly it is stigma. Even today, I feel awkward, even discussing it. People are not super close to that. I'm going through this, I'm going through some anxiety or like, I feel a little depressed. So, I think the stigma is the number one thing that is coming in the way of the Indian household and how do we move that stigma through conversation and initiatives like ‘Sitar For Mental Health’?

What steps do you think should be taken in order to make sure that Indian households become a safe environment where an individual can speak up about facing mental health issues?

Education and awareness about mental health should be a part of your school curriculum. There should be campaigns, workshops, and awareness drives, even to emphasize the importance of mental health, and they should be encouraged to talk about mental health openly, to be honest. Open communication, also, parents, family members and friends should be encouraged to have an open mind and also have open conversations about mental health. Access to mental health services is also important. It shouldn't be rich man's disease. It should be accessible to everyone. There are a few organisations that I work with who have been doing some great work like DLL and advocacy. So, sometimes influencers should talk about mental health. They should advocate mental health like I'm doing. My voice is My Sitar and my music so I try to use my music to create as much noise as I can.

Where have you all travelled and played?

We've done shows in Canada, Toronto, Montreal, I performed in Dubai and I performed in the Caribbean as well as Guyana and I'm going to the UK in June. So, I'm really looking forward to that and my dual Europe tour as well.

Have you played with any big names like Pt Ravi Shankar or Anoushka Shankar or anyone else?

I haven't played on stage with Guruji but I was learning from him. So, I was playing with him almost every day when I was learning. Aside from that, the Yussef Dayes collaboration is pretty big. He's very famous in the UK.

As music has been a huge part of your life, tell us what has been your biggest learning from music, which traditional Indian schooling system could have never taught you?

I think I've reached a level of maturity in my life. I am at the level where I'm trying to learn how I can find philosophy in music, find metaphors in real life with musical notes, the rags that make you feel a certain way and they can put you in a certain mood and now I'm sort of relating that to like real life situations. Like this is so heavy why this is such a Bhairavi Vibe, this person's put me in like a raag purvi zone. I've made raags like neighbourhoods almost now, like metal verses and that is something that cannot be taught and it's something that you go through by yourself. Besides that, if you ask me simply what music has taught me- training with Guruji has taught me discipline, dedication, presentation, how to carry yourself, how to talk on stage, and how to behave in the public eye. Humility most importantly.

Sitar is one musical instrument that’s somewhere getting lost in today’s times of techno music. What do you think should be done in order to keep its legacy alive?

I don't think Sitar is going anywhere. It's just like we losing Indian classical rock stars. When we lost Guruji, that was a big hit to classical music. We've lost Shivji and so many grandmasters. And I often get a little depressed. Think about it, I don't have anyone to look up to anymore. You know, when I lost Guruji like there was no one who can inspire me as much as he did. In today's times, there are sitar players, but to be honest, no one impresses me or inspires me the way that he did. So, I just decided, I'm going to be the inspiration in someone else's life. Like how I looked up to Guruji that's how I want the younger generation or the upcoming generations to look at me. So, coming back to today's times of techno music, and I swear to God, there's so much techno in India. It's only when I go to India, I realise oh damn techno is pretty big. But because on this side of the world, there is more of hip hop. I feel our music is very progressive, and it progresses and changes over time. In classical Indian music, the notes remain the same. But what we do with those notes has been always changing our influence on how to play these notes has also changed over time. Like what I'm doing with sitar Lo-Fi, you know, no one imagined sitar and Lo-Fi music together. So that really makes people happy. And I feel like the next big thing that I want to do is sort of collaborate with the pop artist to make sitar more relevant to our music in general more relevant. And if once that happens, then we can point them towards the roots. So, it's really about promoting Sitar as a coping mechanism more than anything. That's the ‘Sitar For Mental Health’ at least. But I think the legacy would only be alive through collaboration and bringing different worlds together.

Are you doing any composition work? Anything for any movies or shows?

Sadly, I've signed a couple of NDA's so I can't talk about them. But yes, I am. I've been working on a movie. He's in the South Indian film industry. And I've been releasing and composing my own songs for about like three to five years now and actually started producing when I was 12. I started producing music early in life. I taught myself how to, you know, run these DAWs, use these audios, workstations, and equipment, familiarise myself with mics, and how to record. And so, it's been like, what, more than 10 years now that I've been like recording and producing music. I've only been releasing them for the past three years. But before that, I was just like working, working, working. And I was too anxious to put anything out. For the last 3 years, I've put it all out there.

Do you think Bollywood music is losing its originality in today’s times?

Bollywood was never original in the first place. If you listened to songs from the 50s and 40s, it was purely classical music that they used. So I mean, you can't call that original Bollywood music. And after that, Bollywood music has been like one bouquet of everything. So they've always been picking and mixing. I like this body-funk rhythm, and I like the Western orchestra, let's incorporate that into our music and have them play raaga or something like that. So it's always been a sort of blend of everything. And that's what's happening right now as well. You know, they just like following trends. Bollywood is one of the biggest industries so they're smart people. They know what is going on in the world and what will serve their audiences well, and also like Bollywood is a very big umbrella. I mean, Tony Kakkar is popular in Bollywood as well as AR Rahman.

Being a musician in today’s times, what sort of challenges do you face?

The biggest challenge is the short attention span of people now. And you also have a lot of competition not in terms of music, but just like, like, online, you're competing towards people who are dancing, who are doing comedy, people who are doing all sorts of stuff. And to make a name for yourself and just like shining out of all that content that's floating around is a challenge. So you just have to find a way to just be out there and be relevant. I'm very fortunate that I didn't have to do any cringy things to get famous or just to get attention. I've kept my art very pure. I've kept my music very pure. If you go to my Instagram, it's all about music, nothing else. I will share memes and all but like most of the posts you'll see are purely like Sitar for mental health-oriented and a few Bollywood covers that I've done just to sort of channel that nostalgia. So I just go to bed happy. I haven't altered my art nor am I a sellout per se. I mean not to look down on people who do all sorts of things. I mean, you do that, that's great.

Lastly, what next can we hear coming from your end?

So the Yusuf collabs are coming out. I'm touring the UK soon. And there's a lot of lo-fi music in the pipeline. So watch out for that. I have a couple of releases from my album called Navras. So Rosalyn, Chanakya,Tilak, Kamod - basically all the songs were part of the album. So I have two more left and now the press will be complete. Aside from that we are also planning to tour India later this year. So keep an eye out for that as well. And yes, that's about it. I'm so excited to do this.