Ronnie Screwvala Case Study

Ronnie Screwvala is one of the biggest names in Bollywood. He is a film producer and the founder of UTV motion pictures. He has produced blockbuster movies like Uri: The Surgical Strike, Chennai Express, Swades, Rang De Basanti, and many more.

He belonged to a lower-middle-class family. Completed his schooling at Cathedral & John Connon School. and completed his Bachelor Of Commerce degree from Sydenham College.

He started the company in 1990 with little capital of 37 thousand rupees in a tiny basement office in Mumbai.

He has been named on Esquire's list of 75 most influential people of the 21st century. he was also listed amongst 25 of Asia's most powerful people by Fortune Magazine.

Here are five facts you didn't know about Ronnie Screwvala.

1. He brought laser toothbrush technology to India.

In his 20s, he was doing anchoring in tv and had flown to the UK to learn more. His dad was in London at the same time and took him for a tour in a toothbrush manufacturing plant. There Ronnie's eyes caught attention to two machines that were soon to be decommissioned and sent to scrap, after knowing that the machines could still produce top-quality toothbrushes for the next 10 years or more he did some quick calculations in his mind and decided to bring that machines to India. Then over the next four months, he worked hard to convince the brands like P&G, Colgate to buy toothbrushes from him. Later, the company manufactured and sold more than 5 lakhs toothbrushes in its first year.

2. He is the pioneer of Cable TV in India.

In the early 1980s, he ventured into the cable tv business. It was a new phenomenon, back then people never hold a remote in their hands. To sell the concept of cable TV, he set up hundreds of demos in building lobbies across the city. Over the next twelve months, he did over 1000 demos and more than 3000 door-to-door visits. They targeted every hotel in the country for cable services. After a year of hard work and patience, he convinced most of the major hotel chains across India to buy in. This made selling services to mass easier.

Failure is a Comma, Not a Full Stop.

3. He introduced daily soap phenomena to Indian audiences.

In the early 1990s, he started UTV. For the first five years, there was no external funding. The show that established UTV as an innovator, a disrupter was "Shanti", which was India's first daily soap. Before this, there was no concept of anything viewed for 5 days a week. The soap struggled for the first six months. After that, the audience grew exponentially.

After growing UTV for a few years in the late 1990s, he wanted to expand into the broadcasting and movie business. UTV films won 25 national awards for nine films.

4. He brought Hungama into the lives of the Indian kids.

Most experts at that time claimed that there was no scope for creativity or innovation as Indian television was already crowded with channels like Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Pogo, Discovery Kids, and Nick. Ronnie still felt a gap and went ahead with his gut and Hungama was born.

The team introduced two Japanese cartoon shows in India, Doremon, and Shinchan. During the initial months the shows didn't do that well on tv but then became instant hits with the kids, soon within 18 months Hungama tv became the number one kid's tv channel in India.

In 2012, the Walt Disney Company acquired Hungama and also the parent channel UTV.

5. Kabaddi team owner.

He is the owner of team ' U Mumba' plays in the Pro Kabaddi League which was launched in the year 2014. After the first season, the age-old sport became a national sensation and the second most popular sport in India in a span of two months.

Hope you liked this. If you want more of such case studies do let me know in the comment section.