Korla Pandit (September 16, 1921 – October 2, 1998),[1][2][a] born John Roland Redd, was an American exotica musician, composer, pianist, and organist.

After moving to California in the late 1940s and getting involved in show business, Redd became known as "Korla Pandit", claimed as a French-Indian musician from New Delhi, India.

[5] His older brother, Ernest Redd Jr. (1913–1974), known as "Speck" for his freckles, also became a jazz pianist and later a band leader in Des Moines, Iowa.

[5] In the early 1940s, Redd met his sister Frances's white friend and roommate, Beryl June DeBeeson, a Disney artist and former dancer.

Redd used the name "Juan Rolando" to gain a job playing the organ on the Los Angeles radio station KMPC.

[5] In 1948, Redd created and played background music as Korla Pandit for the revival of radio's occult adventure series, Chandu the Magician, achieving an air of mystery on the Novachord and the Hammond CV electronic organ.

[5] In 1948, while performing in Hollywood at a furrier's fashion show, Pandit and his wife Beryl met television pioneer Klaus Landsberg.

[5] Korla Pandit's Adventures In Music was first telecast on Los Angeles station KTLA in February 1949; it was the first all-music program on television.

Landsberg insisted Pandit refrain from speaking and gaze into the camera as he played the Hammond organ and Steinway grand piano, often simultaneously.

Never dropping his Indian persona, Pandit acquired notable friends such as actor Errol Flynn, comedian Bob Hope, and Sabu Dastagir, known for his roles in the documentary Elephant Boy (1937) and the feature Thief of Baghdad (1940).

[11] The late 1950s was the time of the Beat generation, which saw many Americans embrace spirituality and Eastern religions, while rejecting traditional values including the need to conform to society's norms and economic materialism.

He made a cameo appearance as Korla Pandit in Tim Burton's biopic Ed Wood (1994), which drew renewed attention to him as a performer.

[5] Intrigued by the Smith article, John Turner and Eric Christensen, retired TV producers who had each known Pandit in his later years, made a documentary entitled Korla (2014).

The duo interviewed an array of friends, fellow musicians, and family, discussing Pandit's life and achievements and exploring the complexities of racial identity.

[12] After Korla was widely released, various media outlets commented on Pandit's history, casting it as a classic American story of self-invention.