Ronnie Screwvala (Indian Entrepreneur) Biography

Ronnie Screwvala is an entrepreneur and film producer. He belongs to Indian nationality. The full name of Ronnie Screwvala is Rohinton Soli Screwvala. His name was included in the list of 21st Century’s Most Influential People in 2008, produced by Esquire. Along with this, he also achieved the rank of 78 in the list of 100 most influential people in the world (Time 100).

Ronnie Screwvala was born on December 20, 1957, in Mumbai, India. He attended Cathedral and John Connon Schools in Mumbai before enrolling at Sydenham College for a degree in commerce. He worked as a stockbroker after college and then founded his own advertising agency. He created UTV Group in 1990, which grew to become one of India’s major media and entertainment firms.

Ronnie Screwvala Biography

Ronnie Screwvala Physical Stats

Ronnie Screwvala Net Worth

Ronnie Screwvala is one of the richest Entrepreneur from India. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, Ronnie Screwvala‘s net worth $3-5 Million.

In 1990, Screwvala started his career with a TV production company with Rs 37,500 before becoming a media conglomerate. After that, Walt Disney bought UTV for $454 million and turned it into Disney UTV. Right Now, Ronnie Screwvala is a co-founder and a chairperson of upGrad whose value is estimated to be around $2.25 billion. RSVP has produced many pictures and one of the grossing movies named Uri: The Surgical Strike, which earned over Rs 350 crore worldwide.

Ronnie Screwvala Career

Ronnie Screwvala started his career as an entrepreneur by founding a toothbrush manufacturing company. In 1981, Screwvala was also credited with pioneering Cable TV when there was a single channel named Doordarshan. He grew the same in various cities and hotel chains in India. Ronnie Screwvala also hosted a quiz named Mashoor Mahal on the same channel.

In 1990, Screwvala founded UTV, which grew into a leading movie studio over some time. The same company was listed on the stock exchange in 2005. After some time, Disney took a substantial stake in UTV and divested the company fully in 2012.

Ronnie and his wife founded the Swades Foundation in 2013 onwards. The foundation’s name was decided by the film he produced named Swades. The goal of the foundation is to remove poverty from rural areas. Currently, the foundation is working in Raigad, Maharashtra, where millions of people from two thousand villages are working together. The main focus is on the livelihood opportunities where they work on sanitation, water and others.

Ronnie Screwvala Girlfriend / Spouse

Ronnie Screwvala has dated –

1. Manjula Nanavati – His first wife was Manjula Nanavati and they have a daughter named Trishya Screwvala. The marriage ended in divorce.
2. Zarina Mehta – He later remarried entrepreneur and philanthropist Zarina Mehta. She has served as a co-founder of the media company UTV as well as is the co-trustee of their philanthropic foundation called The Swades Foundation.

Ronnie Screwvala Awards

• National Film Award
• Filmfare Awards
• IIFA Awards
• Filmfare Awards
• IIFA Awards
• Filmfare Awards

Ronnie Screwvala Entrepreneur

Ronnie Screwvala is an astute entrepreneur and has quite a lot of feathers in his cap. He began by starting a company ‘Laser,’ which manufactured toothbrushes, which is now the largest in the country and produces around 6 million brushes per month, for most of the leading toothbrush brands in India. He pioneered home shopping in India with Tele-Shopping Network (TSN) and is also known for introducing cable television in India in 1981. He went ahead and found South Asia’s premier studio and animation complex, the United Studios.

Screwvala incorporated the UTV Group in 1990 and diversified it into a leading movie studio, a Games Studio, and a creative content company. It went public and got listed on the stock exchange in 2005. In 2008, The Walt Disney Company picked up a 15 per cent stake in UTV Global Broadcasting for Rs. 118.98 crores, which made it the largest foreign investment in India followed by the acquisition of 32.1 per cent in the parent UTV Software Communications Ltd for Rs 805.05 crore. In the year 2012, Screwvala divested the entire company to the WDC. This made him a global name in the Media industry.

The Swades Foundation

Ronnie is the co-founder of Swades Foundation, along with his wife Zarina. The purpose of the initiative is to uplift a million people out of poverty, where the main focus is on livelihood opportunities. It is currently active in Maharashtra, in a 3000 sq km concentric geography in Raigad – in 2000 villages working on water, sanitation, health, and education.

Ronnie Screwvala upGrad

Screwvala took an opportunity to explore the uncharted areas of the education sector and co-founded the largest online education company in India, called upGrad in 2015. It is a higher-education learning platform that provides programs in the areas of Data Science, Technology and Management to college students, working professionals, and enterprises. upGrad is in association with universities like IIT Madras, IIIT-B, BITS Pilani, MICA, Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education, etc.

USports

Screwvala cofounded USports with a focus on three areas, Kabadi, ESports, and Football. USports has an initiative called UDreams, which helps in the professional training of children in these sports to enable them to perform at the international level.

Ronnie Screwvala Producer

Film

Screwvala has produced dozens of mainstream blockbusters, indie movies across all genres, and contemporary Bollywood classics. Some of these worth mentioning productions of Ronnie include Swades (2004), Rang De Basanti (2006), Chup Chup Ke (2006), Jodha Akbar (2008), Paan Singh Tomar (2010), Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019), and The Sky is Pink (2019).

Television

Ronnie has also produced some successful television shows such as Shanti (1994-98), Shaka Laka Boom Boom (2000-04), Khichdi (2002-04), Shararat (2003-07), Hero – Bhakti Hi Shakti Hai (2005-07), etc.

Author

Ronnie Screwvala is an author and has written books like Dream with Your Eyes Open: An Entrepreneurial Journey, Skill It, Kill It: Up Your Game and Dream with your Eyes Open 101: Practical Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Ask. Screwvala has shared his insights, his experiences and wisdom through these books.

Ronnie Screwvala Controversies

• Ronnie Screwvala’s new film, Captain India, gathered controversy when it was revealed that another movie, Operation Yemen, was based on the same plot and was in the making.

Ronnie Screwvala wife and daughter

Ronnie Screwvwala’s wife is Zarina Mehta, whom he credits for being a huge support system. He says that the name ‘Hungama’ for the kids channel was given by her. The couple lives with their daughter Trishya at Breach Candy, South Mumbai.

Ronnie Screwvala Facts

1. During his school years, he took a great interest in theatre and used to act in professional plays with Bombay theatre as a hobby. His theatre credits include playing roles in Shakespeare’s Othello and Death of a Salesman.
2. Ronnie Screwvala co-produced the 2006 drama film Rang De Basanti, starring Aamir Khan, Siddharth, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni, Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Kapoor, and Alice Patten. The film won many accolades including the National Film Award for “Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment” and IIFA Award for “Best Film”.
3. Along with Siddharth Roy Kapur, Ronnie Screwvala co-produced the 2012 Hindi-language romantic comedy-drama film Barfi!. The film became one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of 2012 and bagged several accolades including the Filmfare Award and IIFA Award for “Best Film”.
4. He is the co-founder of upGrad (one of the largest Online Education companies in India focused on the higher education and specialization sector).

Ronnie Screwvala Shark Tank

The newest season of Shark Tank India is running successfully and many new sharks have made their much-anticipated debuts. In the past two seasons, the panel was represented by Vineeta Singh, Namita Thapar, Anupam Mittal, Peyush Bansal, Amit Jain, and Aman Gupta.

Ritesh Agarwal(OYO), Radhika Gupta(Edelweiss), Varun Dua(Acko), Deepinder Goyal(Zomato), Azhar Iqubal(InShorts), and Ronnie Screwvala are the new faces and all of them have left a lasting impression. Varun Dua is the only shark who is yet to feature in an episode.

The recent one to make a debut is Ronnie Screwvala. Many already know him as a prominent figure of the entertainment industry. However, he is not only a celebrated film producer but also a successful entrepreneur.

Read : All Shark Tank Judges Biography!