Lolpalooza India 2025 Creating a place for Indian classical music

The heat of Sunday afternoon was repressive, but many music lovers did not see the mind of wearing a few kilometers away from a few kilometers, a few kilometers away from a few kilometers to attend the Mahalaxmi Race course in Mumbai. Most of them were in their 20s or 30s, waiting for the American Rock Band Green Day, Norwegian singer Arora and Kerala rapper Hanumankind to listen to the global chart with ‘Big Dogs’ last year. Their primary tastes were different, but he listened patiently, and rushed regularly, when Sitar’s ambush Niladri Kumar set a 40-minute fusion. Bookmyshow’s LollaPalooza India 2025 was held on 8 and 9 March. This was the third edition of the festival in Mumbai, and various styles such as rock, pop and electronic dance music were included in Desi Rap and Indian Indi. Niladri appeared a year after the performance of Sitar player Anawasha Shankar in the festival.

Although he pulled out his traditional sitar for a few minutes, Niladri played most of the zeiters (electric sitar), his composition. With tabla player Satyajit Talwalkar, drummer Gino Banks and Keyboardist Agnalo Fernandes, he displayed a lot of energy and ease, and sometimes, his humor. After playing an introductory piece of 10 minutes, he said, “It was only our sound-oriented. The real concert now begins. ,

It was not a traditional classical concert in any way. A large part of it works with familiar phrases – the 51 -year -old musicians knew the pulse of the audience, and their attention was to entertain them with their zeiter, even though experienced ears found their efforts in gimmick. The broad idea was to woo him to listen to more Indian classical music in the future.

As Niladri said, “Lolapluja is a historical event that occurs in the music calendar of Mumbai, and it is a place where many international work. Many youth come there to see them. But, I want the crowd that comes here also comes to listen to the style that I do. I hope music will have an impact on them. ,

Niladri was demonstrated on the birthday of Ustad Zakir Hussain. The seaterist traveled extensively with delay Sela legend, doing several classical and fusion shows. He was a part of Zakir’s triple concerts for tabla, sitar and flute with Rakesh Chaurasia in 2023 and India’s symphony orchestra. “” It has already been said (about being near Zakir), and without repetition, only one would say that pure, true improvisation, “.

Niladri was part of Zakir Hussain’s triple concerts for tabla, sitar and flute, along with Rakesh Chaurasia

This year, one of the major shows of Niladri was his classical repetition at the Barbikan Center in London on February 11, where he was with Satyajit Talwalkar on Tabla. He recalled, “We had to face a challenge because the show was slipped in a week’s day, especially for a place that was large in size. But we managed to pull that bandh and packed the hall. The site has a certain grandeur and after the show ended, it was great to hear the applause played in your ears.”

Niladri was trained by his father PT Karthik Kumar by a disciple of veteran PT Ravi Shankar. While he continues to play the instrument in his traditional form, he also felt the need to develop a version that could offer a new style. In this way the zeiter came into existence. “It’s not that I woke up one day and the zeitor came into my hands. The process took a few years when I started experimenting with Microphone Way in 1998. However, the initial efforts did not give me what I wanted in terms of sound. ,

In 2001, Niladri began to experiment with magnetic pick-up. He explained, “This is basically an electric pick-up. Two decades ago, it was not easy to buy sound equipment here. You either traveled abroad to buy, or someone asked to get it. Therefore, it took time to get what I wanted. The first time I put an electric pick-up, I was on my father’s sitar. He was advised to rest some rest, and I took his sitar without permission. I remember that I used to remove the wire of sympathy and stick to Velcro and as I used to go. ,

On a visit to Delhi, he visited the musical instrument shop Rikhi Ram. He said, “They were advertising something called baby sitar or traveling sitar. This created my interest. Therefore, I bought that sitar, and changed the configuration of the string. It was more practical. I could now travel with two stars – my own traditional sitar and small which I named the zeitor. ,

The new composition, however, looked the same in the color and shape of the traditional sitar. Then Niladri decided to give it a new color. It was not really popular to portray Indian devices, as they thought it would tamper with sound. But, I tapped into the science that I studied in school and college to ensure that the sound was not affected. I would probably never be the owner of Ferrari, but I felt that I could paint that device – so, red. ,

Niladari believes that cooperation adds a new dimension to music

The Niladari said that they were not sure whether the zeiter was successful in attracting a new audience for classical music. “But I know that it has been successful in taking it to many musicians, in any other form or shape or color or name. And since many musicians have taken it, many manufacturers are also making a zeter under some size or color or name. ,

Apart from the small tours of the US and Türkiye, Niladri are also interacting for some cooperation. “I believe that a cooperation should add a new dimension and make something that has not been done before. In the long run, I also want to write a concert, where I will make music for the sitar and an orchestra. ,

Niladri hoped that Lolpaluja would inspire him to come up with a list of a new performance. A surprise can only be in the store.