As a 10-year-old, he lived on the first floor of a five-storey building adjacent to Novelty Cinema, Mumbai. The unique feature of this house was its balcony that had a good view of actors walking the red carpet. The little boy found an opportunity here and sold tickets to fans wanting to have a look at their favourite stars from that window. “I have strong memories of that. The good part was that only our balcony had the vantage view as all others were blocked by hoardings and so something must have gone “tick” in my mind even though I was just 10. Entrepreneurship is a big word and I’m not sure if I connected with it then. But the seed to seek opportunities was sown then I think,” recalls Ronnie Screwvala. Dressed in a black tee and trousers, Ronnie was in Hyderabad at Indian School of Business (ISB) for a special session.
Founder of UTV group, Ronnie has donned different roles with élan. He strongly advocates the need for more entrepreneurs and his UpGrad, an online educational venture that teaches entrepreneurship to working professionals, works towards that direction. Is education important or entrepreneurship? There is no either or here at all, he thinks. And this is also with a false assumption that life learnings and learning on the job are also not education in its best form. The extent and depth of formal education is a personal choice and depends on individual goals. Our initiative with UpGrad, is based on the fact that in the 21st century learning never stops and that you do need to upgrade yourself all the time,” he points out.
He recalls his visits to the city many decades ago. “My first visits to Hyderabad were many decades ago when we used to take our plays on road shows. Much later I used to visit the city as we worked on cable TV projects with many of the hotels there and also had tied up with a TV manufacturer then called Telerad (which I don’t believe exists today). More recently I came with our Kabaddi team U Mumba for the matches played there,” he states.
He turned a writer with his debut book ‘Dream with your Eyes Wide Open’ which makes a strong case of entrepreneurship. Are more books in the offing? “I would say no. The book was meant to be a nudge for young India to take the plunge and build their dreams. I just chose to write the book as I thought the timing was right,” he smiles.
While scores of youngsters look up to him and follow his life to chase their dreams, Ronnie never followed anyone’s footsteps. “Without appearing smug in any way, I would say I did not have a role model. I wish I had but I did not,” he quips.
Failure is a part of life, especially for entrepreneurs. Ronnie was no different. The first five movies he produced were big failures. “The first is always that you don’t have a choice; you set out on this journey and you cannot let setbacks stop you. I do believe that it’s when you stop and give up that real failure takes place. I am a firm believer of staying the course, you can never time success or being in the right place at the right time. But you can sure work on creating multiple opportunities for the same,” he observes.
Among his different roles, his stint with UpGrad and being disruptive in the learning and education space is close to him as also what they are doing with Swades Foundation in rural India. His other interests include reading and his two-hour workouts, from walking to yoga. “It gives me time to reflect and think. I play chess with the computer when I feel dull in my mind and after two games – ‘out or win’, I feel sharp again,” he smiles.
Finally, if a movie were made on his life, which actor does he think could play the role? He laughs, “I don’t think it would make an interesting subject at all - sharing learnings and failures does not make content for a movie. I would not green light it.”
