Gingger in your music

Subramaniam,however,has rarely spoken about this ‘forgotten’ daughter. Question Shankar about her relationship with her father’s family and her three siblings,and she retreats into a shell. “So many of my family members are in the public eye,I prefer not to discuss them,” she says.

Her forte is playing the double violin,an instrument that covers the whole orchestral range. “There are only two of them in the world,” she says. Armed with the double violin,she has appeared at concerts with Peter Gabriel,Zakir Hussain,Steve Vai,Steve Lukather,Smashing Pumpkins and Trent Reznor apart from Laxmi Shankar. But she has held only one performance,with percussionist Sivamani,in India.

Over e-mail from Los Angeles,where she is based,Shankar,28,says,“I attended Kalakshetra,but my growing up and education has primarily been in the US. Unfortunately,I have not been to India for several years,but hope to be there by the end of 2011.”

While she avoids talking about her father,her mother features predominantly in a conversation with her. “My mother had everything to do with who I was and what I became as an artiste. The passion for my art comes from my life — love,loss,people who have affected me,travelling and new experiences. Every song I have ever written comes from a personal experience. I am definitely my mother’s daughter,” says Shankar,who uses her mother’s maiden name instead of her father’s equally famous one.

A trained pianist and opera singer,she calls her work in The Passion Of The Christ an “education into film composing. Mel (Gibson) was very intense,but he was also incredibly funny and entertaining. He mentioned one day that he could sing very low,so we asked if he would sing these chants with us and he did. They sounded amazing,” says Shankar,who based the music of the film on 75 raags and calls it “a tough project”. She is currently wrapping up The Homecoming by director Sean Hackett,and playwright Richard Montoya’s next play and film.