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Ronobir Lahiri trained as teenager on Indian Classical Sitar in Calcutta, India under Sri Deepak Choudhuri, a pre-eminent disciple of Ravi Shankar. After nearly 20 years of studying classical music, he made a departure from the classical tradition, and began experimenting with incorporating the sitar into contemporary electronic and popular music. His first album, Broad Strokes, was an atmospheric meditation in melodic, sitar-drive house music. The follow-up album, Hypnosis: Deep House Sitar, was a more sophisticated and articulate exploration of deep progressive house music, with long-form tracks that lulled the listener into an energized trance.
Soon after, Ronobir moved to explore the music of his generation, re-orchestrating and arranging the most popular songs in the world with a ancient Indian sound. Several albums of “Sitar Covers” followed, the most popular being the 2021 release, “Redemption Sitar.” By remixing classic American songs with a traditional Indian instrument and a powerfully authentic vocal, he’s able to convey the universal experience of what it’s like to grow up American, with deep foreign roots. Indian face, American story.
As a sitar player, Ronobir has been featured on albums from Katy Perry, Ziggy Marley, Jaden Smith, and Lil Nas X. He’s performed at the Hollywood Bowl, as a special guest of the Blue Man Group.
As a composer and producer, he created many works for HBO, one of with was awarded the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Promotional Announcement.
As an actor, Ronobir has appeared in countless television shows and film. He trained as an actor at Yale University, and has been on Broadway and the West End, in the the title role of The King and I.
On television, he’s played guest roles on Law & Order, The Sopranos, Desperate Housewives, Bones, Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, This Is Us, and 9-1-1, among others.
In film, he created the role of Jagjit Singh, in the cult classic American Desi, and appeared in You’ve Got Mail, Stuart Little 2, Ted 2, and Elemental.
He holds a BA in Theater Studies and Literature from Yale University.
He lives in Los Angeles, with his wife and two children.
