The legendary shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan is the third classical musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna (in 2001), the highest civilian honour in India. Bismillah Khan is perhaps single handedly responsible for making the shehnai a famous classical instrument. Traditionally used to play music during marriages, the shehnai is the counterpart of the South Indian nadaswaram. It is also used to play music in temples.

Khan was born on 21 March 1916. His ancestors were court musicians in the princely state of Dumraon in Bihar and he trained under his uncle, the late Ali Bux `Vilayatu’, a shehnai player attached to Benares's Vishwanath Temple. He brought the shehnai to the center stage of Indian music with his concert in the Calcutta All India Music Conference in 1937. It was Khan Sahib who poured his heart out into Raga Kafi from the Red Fort on the eve of India’s first Republic Day ceremony.

Khan has honorary doctorates from the Banaras Hindu University and Santiniketan. He has been awarded the Sangeet Natak Academi Award, the Tansen Award of the Madhya Pradesh government and also the prestigious Padma Vibhushan.

Despite his fame, Khan's lifestyle retains its old world Benares charm. His chief mode of transport is still the cycle rickshaw. A man of tenderness, he believes in remaining private, and that musicians are supposed to be heard and not seen.