ELLE Digital Cover Star: Anoushka Shankar, In Her Own Time

Some moments don’t announce themselves loudly. They arrive with quiet recognition, revealing their weight only in retrospect. This cover shoot with Anoushka Shankar carried that quality—calm, unforced, and deeply resonant.

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The atmosphere on set mirrored her presence. Surrounded by an all-women team, the energy was instinctive and grounded, marked by empathy rather than urgency. There was a sense of ease that can’t be manufactured—each person assured in her role, every decision considered. It felt aligned with the way Shankar herself moves through the world: attentive, intentional, quietly powerful.

Shankar has long been someone who resists the obvious moment, choosing instead to arrive when things feel truthful. Over the years, her work has traced that instinct—across music, collaborations, and conversations that unfold slowly and meaningfully. This shoot felt like a natural convergence of many such threads: music, reflection, women-led creativity, and the privilege of witnessing an artist at a moment of inward clarity.

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When the conversation took place, Shankar was on holiday in the Maldives with her children. Her voice carried an ease and presence, “In this moment, I’m feeling really relaxed,” she said. “I’m on holiday with my kids, it’s the new moon, and I’ve set some beautiful intentions for the next cycle and the new year.” That sense of intentionality shaped our entire conversation.

She described the past few years as “incredibly fulfilling,” marked by the creation and global touring of her three-part musical trilogy. “It’s also been full of highs and lows, like any time is,” she reflected. “But I feel like I’m at a slight completion point of a long cycle.” That cycle, she explained, brought professional highs but also demanded a deeper reckoning. “What does it mean to be a single mother with a really busy career? What is my capacity as a neurodivergent person? What are my limits?”

Exhaustion, for her, became a point of inquiry rather than collapse. “That exhaustion really prompted a look at this stuff,” she said. “How can I be truly creative if I’m depleted?” It’s a question that feels especially resonant in a world that often rewards output over care. With the start of the new year, she spoke of moving forward with optimism and curiosity, eager to experiment with new ideas rather than arrive at fixed conclusions. 

Her relationship with nerves has evolved, too. Touring has given her rhythm and familiarity. “On the whole, I don’t get nervous anymore,” she said. Preparation now centres her rather than destabilises her. There are still heightened moments—first shows unfamiliar technology, rooms filled with one-intimidating figures—but  nerves no longer dominate her inner landscape. 

Shankar is acutely aware of the assumptions projected onto her, many rooted in shorthand ideas of India, classical music and spirituality. “People think of sitar and India and then make assumptions,” she said, laughing gently. What troubles her isn’t accuracy, but reduction. “They assume I like classical, mellow and spiritual things—and they’re consistently surprised to discover that I love elements of darkness. I love dark art forms, dark music. I love going wild on the dance floor.” Complexity, she reminds us, is not a contradiction.

Legacy is another concept that follows her, one she approaches with care. Only recently has she noticed a shift in how her work is spoken about—recognised not just as performance, but as composition and vision. When she feels grateful, she resists the traditional weight of the word. “A lot of this thinking is very patriarchal,” she said candidly. “Why do we all need to last longer than our time on the earth? As long as we make things a little better than how we were given them, that’s enough.”

That refusal to chase outcomes shapes how she creates. “As soon as I start thinking in terms of weight or success rates, it changes how I approach my music,” she explained. Her process remains intuitive and personal, Sometimes it begins with a theme, as it did with Land of Gold, written in response to the global refugee crisis, Other times it starts with a melody, a moment of collaboration, or simply being in nature. “Being in beauty, in calm, really influences me.”

Her recent trilogy was always imagined as three distinct parts. “One story, three parts, three geographies,” she recalled. Each chapter revealed itself intuitively. She described them sensorially: the first as afternoon light, white and jasmine-scented; the second as inky blue night, carrying the salt of the ocean; the third as morning, a fiery yellow-orange that smelled of earth kicked up by dancing feet. “It’s a joy that’s hard won,” she said, “with new strength and new wisdom.”

Recognition, including her thirteen Grammy nominations, is something she views with perspective. “It still feels like an honour,” she said, “but what means more to me is the consistency.” Ten consecutive nominations for eligible solo records feels rarer than a single win.” “I don’t take a long, consistent musical career for granted.”

Collaboration remains one of her greatest joys. Whether working with Jacob Collier, Arooj Aftab or Gorillaz, chemistry matters more than strategy. Speaking about Gorillaz, she recalled how open the sessions felt. “Some songs were very formed, some barely beginning,” she said. “Damon welcomed my ideas.” She knows what she brings into these spaces. “I won’t lose myself,” she said simply. “I know my role.”

When I asked what she hopes people take away from her performances, her answer was quietly profound. “I hope they leave having had what they needed,” she said. “Some catharsis, some healing, some joy. That cellular feeling when gorgeous music moves through you.”

And perhaps that is what lingers most strongly from this moment: a sense of quiet completion, not as an ending, but as a pause filled with meaning. Anoushka Shankar stands at that threshold with clarity, openness and grace—proof that not everything needs to arrive loudly to leave a lasting resonance. As I step away from my role at ELLE India, I keep returning to that sense of quiet completion. That it came together with Shankar—someone I’ve known for years—felt like the right way to close this chapter.

Team Credits

Editorial Director: Ainee Nizami Ahmedi; Photographer: Avani Rai; Fashion Director and words by: Zoha Castelino; Asst. Art Director: Alekha Chugani; Makeup: Tshering Lama Agency: Feat. Artists; Hair: Sonam Solanki Agency: Feat. Artists; Jr. Bookings Editor: Anushka Patil; Assisted by: Idris Nidham, Hardika Singh(styling), Sharayu Karalkar; Production: CutLoose Productions; Artist Reputation Management: Communique Film PR