Sharma's compositions in several Bollywood movies in collaboration with legendary flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia notwithstanding, he, at the beginning of his career, was not inclined towards something apart from the santoor.
"Khwaja Ahmed Abbas offered me a role of one of the heroes in his film 'Saat Hindustani'. A young man could have easily been swayed but I stuck on, believing that my destiny lay in the santoor," Sharma recalls in a book on him 'Shiv Kumar Sharma: The Man and His Music' by writer-curator Ina Puri.
Yet later, there came a time when apart from classical music he was taking assignments to play in films.
He says his father and guru Pandit Uma Dutt Sharma introduced him to playing the santoor but "never told me 'No, don't play for films'. He was confident that I was serious about my santoor and kept that faith in me".
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The Jammu-born Sharma, winner of prestigious awards like Padma Vibhushan, Padma Shri and Sangeet Natak Akademi, is credited with making the santoor a popular classical instrument.
"Musicians are trying out shortcuts by different means in order to be in the news and to promote themselves. I think this is not the right path to reach your destination. The right path is to do your work sincerely and prove yourself every day, in every concert," he says.
According to Sharma, his music is different today than what he was playing some 10 years ago.
"I'm not playing with that kind of speed now. A musician cannot maintain the speed of music after a while but we don't accept that. We don't want to accept it. I will play my music till the day I feel I am doing justice to this instrument. The day I feel, because of my age or any other factor, that I am not doing justice to my music, I'll give up playing in public.