As a composer and music producer he has collaborated with some of the world's leading musicians such as Paco Peña, John McLaughlin, Philip Glass and Evelyn Glennie.

Of course he attended a lot of concerts, as his family was always having visiting musicians and friends and when he returned home, an analysis of what he heard and “taalim” (training) would start.

He established an international career touring extensively and collaborating with world-class artists such as John McLaughlin, Philip Glass, Paco Pena, Evelyn Glennie, Carlos Santana and Django Bates.

In early 2000, Nishat began a unique collaboration with Paco Peña featuring Flamenco and sitar, with several tours in the UK and Europe as part of his group Spirit & Passion.

With Evelyn Glennie, he performed at two concerts – one with BBC Scottish Symphony, a special piece Khan composed called Dancing with Seagulls.

In 2004, he was invited to perform alongside Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, John McLaughlin and others at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas.

In 2008, he toured Europe with his pioneering project, Spirit & Passion, featuring Flamenco guitar great Paco Pena, and later that year performed a solo concert at the BBC Proms.

In October 2010, Nishat Khan worked on the concept of Mélange, a fusion-jazz show that features an eclectic mix of musicians from all around the world and performed at Tata Theatre, NCPA.

[7] In November that year, Nishat Khan held the audience in a spell as he indulged dance guru Pt Birju Maharaj in a duet or juggalbandi on stage at the opening of the 44th International Film Festival of India in Goa.

[9] The son and disciple of Imrat Khan, Nishat stands at the threshold of the future of sitar and Indian music with his uniquely invigorating, contemporary approach.

— Chris Garlick, Bachtrack, 14 August 2013 "Khan's playing emerged from and receded into the textures like the mysterious traveller, the sitar was meant to represent.

Although his performance cohered exactly with the mood and tempo of the orchestra, it also embodied a sense of autonomy from external constraints, not least by the resonance of its sympathetic strings outlasting all other tones, and by the increasingly virtuosic strumming towards the end, compounding the impression of a source of dynamic energy whose origins are unfathomable."

Nishat Khan was invited to puff his piece beforehand and did so fulsomely, describing his instrument as 'the unknown traveler introducing a mystical and positive energy'."