Nitin Sawhney

Sawhney was also chair of the PRS Foundation, sits on the board of trustees of theatre company Complicité, and is a patron of film festivals, venues, and educational institutions. In 2021, he was an ambassador for the Royal Albert Hall. Sawhney has scored for and performed with orchestras, and collaborated with and written for Paul McCartney, Sting, the London Symphony Orchestra, A. Rahman, Brian Eno, Sinéad O'Connor, Jacob Golden, Anoushka Shankar, Jeff Beck, Shakira, Will Young, Joss Stone, Taio Cruz, Ellie Goulding, Horace Andy, Cirque du Soleil, Akram Khan, Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair, Nelson Mandela, Ojos de Brujo, Hélène Grimaud, Natacha Atlas, Jools Holland, Jorja Smith, John Hurt and Pink Floyd. Performing extensively around the world, Sawhney has achieved an international reputation across multiple artistic mediums. Often appearing as Artist in Residence, Curator or Musical Director at international festivals, Sawhney contributes to musical education, having acted as patron of the British Government's Access-to-music programme, the East London Film festival and, currently, Artis as well as acting as a judge for The Ivor Novello Awards, BAFTA, BIFA, and a new role as Patron for the PRS Foundation. He is a recipient of seven honorary doctorates from British universities, is a fellow of LIPA and the Southbank University, an Associate of Sadler's Wells, and sits on the board for British theatre company Complicite. In 2017, Sawhney received the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award. Having turned down an OBE in 2007, stating that it was associated with "a colonial past", Sawhney accepted a higher-grade CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours. He accepted it for his father, who he said had died regretting that Sawhney had rejected the OBE. Since 2014, the publishing interest of Nitin Sawhney's catalogue has been represented by Reservoir Media Management.

• Name — Nitin Sawhney • Born — 1964 • Birthplace — London, England • Origin — Rochester, Kent, England • Genre — *Electronic • Asian Underground • nu jazz • drum and bass • trip hop • downtempo • R&B • Occupation — *Producer • songwriter • multi-instrumentalist • DJ • orchestral composer • Website — NitinSawhney.com

Nitin Sawhney was raised in Rochester, Kent, England, by first-generation British Indian parents. As a child he studied piano, classical and flamenco guitar, sitar and tabla. He has been quoted speaking about his early life as one of three brothers and his musical influences: "My mum and dad both listened to Indian classical music, but also flamenco, Cuban music, a lot of crooners and a lot of pop. My brothers listened to a lot of rock music. So, I was listening to everything from the Doors to Led Zeppelin and a lot of jazz." He is the cousin of Bollywood actress Lara Dutta. He attended Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School. Subsequently, he studied law at Liverpool University for a short time. Sawhney moved to London, where he met up with old university friend Sanjeev Bhaskar; together they created the comedy team The Secret Asians. From 1996 to 1998, the pair were part of the award-winning BBC Radio sketch show Goodness Gracious Me which transferred to BBC TV in 1998 to 2001. Refocusing on music, Sawhney's solo career began in 1993, when he released his debut album, Spirit Dance, on his own label.

Sawhney has released more than 20 studio albums. He has received 17 national awards for his album work and is a recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award. In 1999, Sawhney released his fourth Gold-selling album, Beyond Skin, on London's Outcaste Records, which took a prestigious Mercury Music Prize nomination and won him the coveted South Bank Show Award. After a subsequent signing to Richard Branson's V2 Records, Sawhney released the Silver-certified Prophesy in 2001, winning a MOBO Award as well as a BBC Radio 3 Music Award. Sawhney's seventh album, Philtre, was released in May 2005, taking yet another BBC Radio 3 Award, and in 2008, his eighth album, London Undersound, released on Cooking Vinyl, featured artwork by Antony Gormley and performances from Paul McCartney, Anoushka Shankar, Imogen Heap and Natty, among many others. Sawhney's 2011 studio work, Last Days of Meaning, previewed at the Royal Albert Hall in May 2011, centres on a character from actor, John Hurt, and follows the metaphorical, Dickensian journey of a lonely and intransigent man. His 2013 box-set release One Zero was recorded live-to-vinyl as a celebration of ten albums releases. Nitin's tenth studio album, Dystopian Dream, was released in November 2015, and his eleventh Immigrants came out in March 2021. His latest album IDENTITY was released in October 2023 with Warner Music. He produced Anoushka Shankar's 2013 Grammy nominated album Traces of You, featuring Norah Jones, and also produced Jools Hollands' 2021 album Pianola. Piano & Friends.

Sawhney's album Dystopian Dream has been made into a full stage show with Sadler's Wells, co-devised with Honji Wang and Sébastien Ramirez, which premiered in Luxembourg on 29 September 2017. Sawhney's substantial theatre/dance credits include the scores for Complicite's Olivier Award-winning A Disappearing Number and Akram Khan's also Olivier Award-winning Zero Degrees, for which Nitin received a New York Performance and Dance Award for best score. After scoring Bahok for the Royal Ballet of China, Sawhney's composition for Khan's Vertical Road received a best new work award in Melbourne. Sawhney worked again with Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on a production based on the life of Manga creator Tezuka and has worked with Akram Khan for iTMOi (in the mind of Igor) as part of the centenary Rites of Spring celebrations at Sadler's Wells. Sawhney directed and produced Indelible, a multi-installation experience at Sadler's Wells, as part of their "NoBody" programme.

Sawhney's acting credits include the award-winning radio and BBC TV series, Goodness Gracious Me, for which he received a Sony Award as performer and writer, Meera Syal's Radio 4 mini-series, Masala FM and Confluence with Akram Khan. As a fledgling theatrical director, his work to date includes Confluence for Sadler's Wells and directing/writing workshops at London's National Theatre for his play, Trust. He has also written articles for UK broadsheets and appeared as a commentator on the BBC's Newsnight Review, Newsnight and HardTalk. Nitin Sawhney Spins the Globe is Sawhney's BBC Radio 2 show. Its fourth series was broadcast in March 2015. Sawhney appeared as an industry expert in two series of the TV series Guitar Star for Sky Arts, as well as appearing in and working as music director on the Sky Arts series Tony Visconti's Unsigned Heroes, which aired in 2017. Sawnhey served as executive producer of the 2022 documentary Hostile.

Sawhney has remixed a wide variety of artists, including Sting, Natacha Atlas, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jeff Beck, Julian Lloyd Webber, Tina Grace and Paul McCartney (for McCartney's The Fireman project). He also collaborated with McCartney on a song called "My Soul", which appeared on Sawhney's London Undersound album, and on various Robert Miles projects such as Miles Gurtu and Organik as well as with American singer-songwriter Jacob Golden. His own work has been remixed by 4hero, Talvin Singh, MJ Cole and Quantic. He produced several songs on Cheb Mami's album Dellali. He co-produced the second album from songwriter Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly entitled Searching for the Hows and Whys released through Atlantic Records. During 2006–2007, he wrote the music for Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's dance piece Zero Degrees; Antony Gormley created the set. He played keyboards on the 2022 Pink Floyd single "Hey, Hey, Rise Up!". He has collaborated with Hindustani classical singers such as Pandit Jayanta Bose and Reena Bhardwaj on multiple occaisons, performing at the Royal Albert Hall, Ocean music venue, and Victoria and Albert Museum. Sawhney had his own BBC Radio 2 series, Nitin Sawhney Spins the Globe, which was commissioned for three series. The series has seen him collaborate with the likes of Joss Stone, Bassekou Koyate, One Eskimo, Diana Yukawa and David Arnold. Sawhney produced and co-wrote Anoushka Shankar's 2013 album Traces of You, which featured Norah Jones. He also co-produced an album by the semi-classical all female string quartet Bond.

Sawhney is a flamenco guitarist and classical/jazz pianist. He works in the classical and pop communities, leading to his claim to broadcasting as artist in his own right for both the BBC Traditional and Electric Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall and Roundhouse respectively. His band has toured the world for decades and Sawhney has performed and scored in recent years with international orchestras to silent films, most notably Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger, Franz Osten's A Throw of Dice and Naruse's Yogoto No Yume, all for the London Symphony Orchestra. Nitin has conducted both the London Symphony Orchestra and the Singapore Festival Orchestra and wrote his first choral piece for London Contemporary Voices Choir. In September 2014, he performed at London's Royal Albert Hall, where he showcased tracks from his tenth studio album, Dystopian Dream. Sawhney musically directed a tribute to the rock musician Jack Bruce at London's Roundhouse in October 2015, and was also musical director for the show Tony Visconti: A Life in Music at London's Union Chapel in 2017. Sawhney is also a DJ, mixing styles from Afro-beat, Dubstep, Asian breakbeat and drum and bass. He performed at London's Fabric nightclub. He has also DJed at festivals such as The Big Chill, WOMAD, WOMADelaide. Clubland released three DJ albums by Sawhney: All Mixed Up – The Definitive Remix Collection; Fabriclive 15 and In the Mind of... Nitin Sawhney.

Much of Sawhney's attention remains focused on the areas of education and community building, accepting the role of Artist in Residence for at least five performing arts organisations across Great Britain and Asia. Sawhney joined Sir George Martin as a patron of the national music college Access to Music, and he is also patron of the Raindance East Film Festival and the British Independent Film Awards. He appears regularly as an arts and current affairs commentator on topical discussion and news programmes such as the BBC's Newsnight, Newsnight Review, and HARDtalk. He has also written for UK national broadsheet newspapers: The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, and The Observer. In June 2019, Sawhney was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. His favourite choice was Massive Attack's remix of "Mustt Mustt" by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: his book choice was The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch. In March 2024, Sawhney disclosed that he underwent emergency surgery following a heart attack. Sawhney was chosen to serve as a judge for the 2024 Booker Prize, alongside Edmund de Waal (chair), Sara Collins, and Justine Jordan.

List of albums, with selected details and chart positions • Title — Details — Peak chart positions • UK — AUS — FRA • Spirit Dance — * Released: 1994 * Label: World Circuit — — — — — — • Migration — * Released: 1995 * Label: Outcaste — — — — — — • Displacing the Priest — * Released: 1996 * Label: Outcaste — — — — — — • Beyond Skin — * Released: 1999 * Label: Outcaste, Zomba — 44 — — — — • Prophesy — * Released: 2001 * Label: V2, BMG, Zomba — 40 — 75 — 46 • Human — * Released: 2003 * Label: V2, Imagem — 54 — — — 62 • Philtre — * Released: 2005 * Label: V2, Imagem — 69 — — — 115 • London Undersound — * Released: 2008 * Label: Cooking Vinyl, Imagem — 68 — — — 137 • Last Days of Meaning — * Released: 2011 * Label: Universal — — — — — — • OneZero — * Released: 2013 * Label: Cherry Red, Universal — — — — — — • Dystopian Dream — * Released: 2015 * Label: Positiv-ID — — — — — — • Immigrants — * Released: 2021 * Label: Piccadilly — — — — — — • Identity — * Released: 2023 * Label: Positiv — — — — — —

• Introducing Nitin Sawhney (1999) Outcaste • FabricLive.15 (2004) Fabric • All Mixed Up (2004) V2 • In the Mind of... (2007) District 6

• 1995 * Flight (Alex Pillai / Hindi Pictures for BBC TV) 1998 * Dance of Shiva (Jamie Payne / Epiphany Productions) 1999 * Split Wide Open (Dev Benegal / Anuradha Parikh / Tropic Films) * The Fiancee (Alex Harvey) * The Sikhs (John Das / BBC TV Documentary Series) 2001 * Ivor the Invisible (Hilary Audas / Paul Madden for Screen First / Channel 4 TV) 2002 * Anita & Me (Metin Husseyin / Paul Raphael) * Bodily Harm (Joe Wright / Catherine Wearing / Channel 4 TV) *Pure (Gilles MacKinnon / Howard Burch) 2003 * Twelfth Night (Tim Supple/ Rachel Gesua / Channel 4 TV) *Second Generation (Jon Sen / Catherine Wearing / Channel 4 TV) *Still the Children are Here (Dinaz Stafford / Mira Nair) 2004 * England Expects (Andy Smith / BBC 1) * Tamworth Two (Metin Husseyin / ITV) 0 * Hari Om (Bharat Bala) * Lila Says (Ziad Doueri) * Angell's Hell (Saurabh Kakkar / ITV) * Lions in Peril (Ingrid Kavalle / BBC) 2005 * Rose and Maloney (Metin Husseyin / Catherine Wearing / ITV) * Blindsight (Lucy Walker / Sybil Robson-Orr) * Natural Fantasia (Sean Christian / BBC Four documentary Natural World Symphony) * Throw of Dice (Franz Osten 1929 silent film, new score performed by BBC Concert Orchestra) 2007 *Living Goddess From the producers of David La Chappelle's RIZE, Dark Fibre Films/More Four * 'The Namesake' (Mira Nair / Lydia Pilcher) *Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory / PlayStation 3) — 2008 *The Fifth Beatle (Vivek Tiwary) 2009 * Jean Charles (Henrique Goldman) 2010 * Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Ninja Theory / Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) * Entanglement (Part of ROH2's Opera Shots at the Royal Opera House) 2011 * Human Planet (8-part BBC documentary series) 2012 * Midnight's Children (film from Salman Rushdie's novel) * Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger (remaster by Network / BFI) * Japan in a Day (Scott Free Productions) * Flying Paper 2013 *Vara: A Blessing 2014 * Dough Three coloured dog films ltd. * Wonders of the Monsoon (BBC Natural History unit) * The Real Nelson Mandela (History Channel) 2017 * Breathe (Andy Serkis / BBC Film) 2018 * Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle (Andy Serkis / Warner Bros) 2019 * Traitors (6-part Channel 4 Series) * A Girl From Mogadishu (Mary McGuckian / Pembridge Pictures) 2021 * The Colour Room (Claire McCarthy / Caspian Films) * Settlers (Wyatt Rockefeller / Brittle-Star Pictures) 2022 * My Name Is Andrea (Pratibha Parmar) * The Flatshare (Peter Cattaneo + Chloe Wicks / 42) * What's Love Got To Do With It (Shekhar Kapur / Working Title) * Hostile (Sonita Gale) 2024 * Tiger (Disneynature) * Funny Woman (Sky Showtime) 2025 * Christmas Karma (Gurinder Chadha) * Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Editions (Audible) 2026 * Vanished (Fragile Films) * Orangutan (Disneynature)