Anoushka Shankar’s life story is stranger than fiction

FEW stories are as fascinating as that of Anoushka Shankar’s. The London-born sitar player was age seven when she found out that she was the daughter of Ravi Shankar, the world-famous Indian classical musician.

Less than a decade later came a further revelation: She had a half-sister in the US, the singer/songwriter Norah Jones. When the sisters first met as teenagers, in 1997, both were simultaneously on the cusp of successful music careers without knowing it. Jones, of course, would go on to become one of the biggest selling artists in the world, while Shankar’s sitar-driven albums would earn her five Grammy nominations.

“It’s a pretty fascinating story and you couldn’t really write this stuff,” says Shankar from the East London home she shares with her husband, film director Joe Wright, and their sons Zubin, 5, and Mohan, 1.