After 43 years of work, Amit Khanna says enough

The chairman of Reliance Entertainment has ended his 13-year stint with the organisation and decided to spend his time on writing, industry welfare, mentorship and documenting the history of Indian media.

After a 43-year career that started in films and then moved to corporate, Amit Khanna, chairman, Reliance Entertainment has decided to move on and dedicate his time to personal interests.

Interestingly, Khanna plans to document the history of Indian media since the 18th century, something he says he always wanted to do.

He says, "I am now going to spend my time in writing, industry welfare, development and mentoring of young talent, and giving back as much as I can to society."

He adds that a lot of his immediate time will go towards documenting the history of Indian media and entertainment from the 18th century - something which he has desired to do for many years.

Khanna will bid adieu to Reliance Entertainment on March 11, ending his 13-year stint with the company. He says, "I am indeed lucky that I have had the privilege of working in virtually all segments of media and entertainment - print, theatre, radio, films, TV and digital in my career. I have had the fortune to start and help build Reliance Entertainment into a global entertainment powerhouse. I leave it behind in safe hands."

Khanna is an industry veteran with 43 years' experience. Born in 1951 and an alumnus of St Stephens College, New Delhi, he began his career as executive producer with the late actor/producer Dev Anand in 1971 with the film Nav Ketan. After spending nearly 18 years in the film industry, he moved to corporate life. In 1989, he joined Plus Channel (India) and served it as managing director for 11 years (till 2000).

He joined Reliance Entertainment in 2000 as chairman.

Khanna has written lyrics for 400 film and non-film songs as well as a dozen feature film scripts that include award winning films like Saaransh. In 1980, he produced his first feature film, Man Pasand.

He has been serving in different capacities in different boards of both government and non-government film and media related bodies such as FICCI, CII, Prime Minister's Committee on Information, Communication and Entertainment, All India Film Producers Council, Film & Television Producers Guild of India, Governing Councils of the Film Institutes in both Pune & Kolkata, and others.

He has been conferred several awards such as National Awards for Films, Industry Leadership Award at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA), First Leadership Award at Indian Film Festival of Houston, a Lifetime Achievement Award for Television (UPTRON) and CMO Council Masterbrand, 2010.