Amit Khanna

He was a Member of the Prime Minister's Committee on Information, Communication & Entertainment (ICE), CII's Service Council and Advisory Board of the Forum d’Avignon, Paris. He was the President of Earth Communications Office (an environmental NGO) from 1999 to 2015. He was the President of All India Film Producers Council, Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd.,for three terms and Vice President of Association of Motion Picture & TV Program Producers for 17 years. He is the only permanent member of the Council of Management of the Guild (after V. Shantaram and Raj Kapoor).

As a lyricist he penned over 200 Hindi film songs, working mainly with music directors like Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan and Laxmikant–Pyarelal. He also composed lyrics for around 200 songs released in music albums by singers Nazia and Zoheb Hassan, Sharon Prabhakar, Salma Agha, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mahendra Kapoor and Shafqat Ali Khan. In 1984 he directed three music videos for Nazia Hassan's music album Young Tarang. He was lyricist for the opening theme song of ten Indian television series, including Buniyaad (1986), Dekh Bhai Dekh (1993) and Swabhimaan (1995).

He has been on the Governing Councils of the Film Institutes in Pune and Kolkata, as well as a member of the Whistling Woods Board. He has been a guest lecturer at New York University and the University of Southern California. He was the first Indian to serve on the International Emmys jury. He has also been on the Jury of film festivals and various award events in India and abroad. Besides serving on over 50 international, government committees and trade organizations and institutions, he has won several awards, including three National Awards for films, the Industry Leadership Award at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) in 2010, First Leadership Award at Indian Film Festival of Houston and a Life Time Achievement Award for Television (UPTRON) in 1995. He has also won the CMO Council Masterbrand in 2011, Life Time Achievement Award in 2010, and a Lifetime Achievement award for his contribution to film and television at the Norway Bollywood Festival 2015.

In 2000 Khanna resigned from Plus Channel to join Reliance Entertainment where he served as Chairman for 15 years. Under his guidance, Reliance Entertainment became a major player in Hollywood. In May 2008 the company signed deals to produce and develop movies with prominent Hollywood actors such as Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jim Carrey and Nicolas Cage. In September 2008 Reliance Entertainment formed a joint venture with Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG named DreamWorks Studios via an equity investment of $325 million. In August 2009 Reliance Entertainment signed an $825 million production and distribution deal with DreamWorks Studios.

Khanna started writing articles for newspapers in 1982 with Take 2, an entertainment weekly broadsheet. Since then he has become a widely syndicated columnist, focusing on media and entertainment in the Indian film industry. His column, Media Musing appeared in various Indian newspapers from 1993 to 1997. He wrote the column Enterprise that appeared from 1999 to 2000 in The Economic Times, an Indian English-language financial newspaper. Business Standard, an Indian English-language daily newspaper, published his column Freeze Frame from 2002 to 2008.

Khanna started his film career as executive producer with Dev Anand's Navketan Films in 1971. In 1989 Khanna helped set up Plus Channel, a television programming house, and joined it as Managing Director and Group Editor. Under his tenure, the organization expanded its role to produce movies and music, and provide event management services. Several films created under the Plus Films banner went on to win National Film Awards. In 1996 Khanna won two awards as film producer at the 44th National Film Awards: Best Feature Film in Hindi for Gudia and Best Feature Film in Urdu for Sardari Begum. Plus Channel produced India's earliest audio books in both prose and verse. It also pioneered business news shows on Indian television.