Ronnie Screwvala Biography
Born: September 8, 1962
Age : 51
Birthplace : Mumbai
Ronnie Screwala is a popular Indian filmmaker, philanthropist and businessman. He is the founder of UT Group for which he even remained the CEO for few years’ way back in 1990. He now heads a couple of other companies and groups dealing with filmmaking and charitable trusts. In the current year, he embarked with his new company called Exited Media dealing with entertainment sector. He is named as the most influential people list by Time Magazine in 2009 apart from being the 25th most powerful man in Asia by Fortune Magazine in New York. He was even named as the best Entrepreneur of the Year by the group called Ernst & Young.
Ronnie Screwvala Wiki :
As far as his early life and education is concerned, he is born and brought up in Bombay in a Parsi family. He did his schooling from Cathedral and John Connon School while went to Sydenham College for his graduation. Since his childhood he has interest in theatres and hence also has enacted in a number of plays of groups like Bombay Theatre. However, his acting career came to an end when he stopped going for the rehearsals since he wanted to start his own toothbrush business. He is married to the lady Zarina Mehta and lives in Breach Candy a lucrative place in South Bombay.
Ronnie Screwvala started his career with local cable TV operator in Bombay under the company called Network in 1981. This was the time of Doordarshan, while with his company Network, he catered three hours entertainment programs in one of the most posh most areas of Bombay called Cuffe Parade. He later started making ads for Doordarshan along with giving content for serials like Shanti and Lifeline. In 1990, he founded UTV group, which offered TV content to different broadcasters. In just 20 years, he expanded UTV into different domains including broadcasting, gaming, filmmaking and other similar businesses. His first movie from this company was Dil Ke Jharoke Main, he later also launched a channel called Hungama in 2004, which is a popular TV channel for kids in India.
In February 2012, UTV was procured by The Walt Disney Co, for which he stayed as MD for the Indian market. In October, he left the company giving the charge to Siddharth Roy Kapur. He then headed to a private equity business along with his philanthropy. He manages a number of online business portals like zivame.com, (a lingerie electronic shop) and lenskart.com (an eyewear shopping portal) and he is currently in embarking of developing an e-shopping website for furniture. As far as his philanthropy groups are concerned, he heads the group called SWADES and SHARE that work in rural development in Maharashtra. He also holds a private equity business known as Unilazer Ventures Ltd. He has produced a number of movies including the recent ones like Satyagrapha, Chennai Express, Kai Po Che, etc.
