Meet The Legal Eagle Of The Indian Music Entertainment Industry

Priyanka Khimani is a name often mentioned in India's entertainment circles, not because she is the face of an upcoming big banner movie release or debuting in a Netflix series, but because her firm, Khimani & Associates, is renowned for their understanding of the entertainment landscape, especially in music. A significant chunk of her legal career has been spent with regards to distinguished product launches, mergers and acquisitions in the technology and entertainment sector. To give a standout example, Khimani and her team negotiated AP Dhillon's deal for the popular global music festival Lollapalooza's Indian debut which is taking place this weekend.

SEE VIDEO: Instagram Live with entertainment lawyer Priyanka Khimani

Myriad tools for creating, distributing, lawfully protecting artists rights and marketing music have dramatically expanded the number of ways artists can structure their recording businesses today, shifting the power from powerful music houses to the artists themselves, and this is something that Khimani helps in facilitating.

However, her association with the entertainment world began before she started practicing as a lawyer, when she was active in the theatre scene in various capacities, as an actor, director or producer. She did screenwriting for TV, doing the first such assignment only aged 15 for a serial on Zee TV. In fact, she dabbled in a number of things, such as modelling, which continued even while she was in Law College, as it was essential for her to be able to sustain herself. After college got over, Khimani worked for a commercial litigation firm, taking up the job as it gave her a fixed pay cheque at the end of every month.

The entry into working with entertainment clients began later, with none other than the legendary Lata Mangeshkar being her first client, and through favourable word of mouth she went on to work with a list of other clients from the music world. Film and TV followed in the next few years.

Recently, she launched a new digital licensing platform called 'Fairplay'. It is a foray into the largely unexplored space of end-to-end online licensing of music. Khimani is also an advisor on benchmark deals across the NFT ecosystem including the inroads made in NFTs by iconic brands Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle.

In a candid Instagram Live with us, Khimani spoke about all this and more, including how she focuses on talent experience as a core component of her firm's overall strategy, and has taken steps to ensure that her company's cultures prioritize professionals by focusing on their personal and professional's mental health and wellness.

The author can be reached at bkabir@entrepreneurindia.com and Instagram.com/kabirsinghbhandari