MUMBAI, INDIA // Mandar Thakur is CEO of Mumbai based Times Music, one of India & South Asia’s leading music entertainment companies encompassing a record label, music publishing and talent management. Times Music is a joint venture between Indian media conglomerate – The Times Group and U.S. based Primary Wave Music, the leading independent publisher of iconic and legendary music in the world. Times Music has two sub-labels – “Junglee Music” which releases film music OSTs, including Bollywood, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, other languages, and the next-generation independent music platform, “ffs.”.

Mandar began his career in Hong Kong with The Entertainment Co. group working for their Asian concert promotion business in the early ‘90s, post which he helped set up the path-breaking 24-hour music television station Channel [V] in India, and subsequently pioneered the digital music landscape in Asia, as part of the founding team at Soundbuzz, then Asia/India’s largest digital music distribution company, which got acquired by Motorola in early 2008. Mandar also chairs the board of PPL India, is on the board of IPRS, PDL and industry association IMI.