Early Life
Ronnie Screwvala was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, into a Parsi family. His father worked as an executive at the British firm J. L. Morrison and Smith & Nephew. He attended Cathedral and John Connon School and Sydenham College in Mumbai. During his schooling, Screwvala was passionate about theatre, performing in plays such as Shakespeare's 'Othello' and 'Death of a Salesman'.
Rise to Success
Screwvala's entrepreneurial journey began in 1981 when he pioneered cable television in India with his company, Network, providing multi-channel TV viewing when there was only one government-owned channel. He then founded UTV Software Communications in 1990, which grew into a major media and entertainment conglomerate with partnerships with News Corp, 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company, and Bloomberg. UTV was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange in 2005. In 2012, he divested his stake in UTV to The Walt Disney Company for an enterprise value of $1.4 billion.
Key Business Strategies
After exiting the media business, Screwvala co-founded upGrad in 2015, an online education platform focused on higher education and specialization. He also founded RSVP Movies, a film production company, and U Sports, a sports company. Through Unilazer Ventures, he has invested in various startups. He has also focused on his philanthropic efforts through the Swades Foundation.
Philanthropy
Along with his wife Zarina, Ronnie co-founded the Swades Foundation, which is focused on rural empowerment across Maharashtra. The Swades Foundation aims to impact one million lives in rural India through initiatives in water, health, education, and livelihood programs. The foundation has been working in over 2,000 villages.
