Portal:Hindi cinema/Selected biography/11

Ravi Shankar (1920 – 2012), often referred to by the title Pandit, was an Indian musician and composer who played the sitar. He has been described as the most known contemporary Indian musician. Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother, Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study the sitar, playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray; he also served as music director of All India Radio in New Delhi from 1949 to 1956. In 1956, he began to tour Europe and America playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there through his teaching, performing, and association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and rock artist George Harrison of The Beatles. Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for the sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992, he served as a nominated member of the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, and has received three Grammy Awards. He continued to perform in the 2000s, often with his daughter Anoushka.