MUMBAI: In a landmark development last night, the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) got itself a new, non-nonsense chairman in the person of celebrated poet, scriptwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar. In the same meeting, Achille Forler, the most experienced copyright administrator in the country and long time activist for authors’ rights, was made Permanent Advisor to the Board.

For a past few years, the Society came into the spotlight for wrong reasons, and the board and its committee even attracted High Courts' attentions several times for its practices.

Other elected authors/composers who join Akhtar and Forler in the new development are Aashish Rego, Rajinder Panesar, G.V. Prakash Kumar, Anupam Roy and Sahithi Cherukupalli. On the publishers’ side, the same faces continue to hold their responsibilities, with the addition of Mandar Thakur from Times Music.

IPRS will soon release its mission statement and brief the media and the industry about its upcoming approaches.