Pandit Pravin Godkhindi

Pravin Godkhindi was born in Dharwad, Karnataka, and began learning the flute at the age of three from his father, Pandit Venkatesh Godkhindi. He later studied rhythm with Vidwan Anoor Anantha Krishna Sharma. He graduated with distinction in electrical and electronics engineering from SDM College of Engineering and Technology, and in 2022 Tumkur University conferred an honorary doctorate on him.

His playing draws on both the tantrakari and gayaki approaches. In 2013 All India Radio recognised him as an "A Top" grade artist, the first South Indian Hindustani bansuri player to be so graded. He performs on an eight-foot contrabass flute he calls the "Gods Bansi", and has designed several other instruments, among them the U-shaped Mandra Bansuri, the flute-and-guitar Flutar, and the amplified Divya Bansuri.

In 1998 he founded the ensemble KRISHNA, which brings Hindustani, Carnatic and Western elements together. He has performed with musicians including Ustad Zakir Hussain, M. Balamuralikrishna and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. As a composer he scored the National Award-winning Kannada films Beru (2005) and Vimukthi (2010), and has written for many further films and television serials. He published a novel, Prahara: Haduva Gadiyara, in 2022, and his own English translation in 2023.

Hindustani flute playing extended by instrument design, circular breathing, film composition and work across Carnatic and Western music.