ENTREPRENEUR SPECIAL ............Screwvala's Nuts and Bolts

Screwvala's Nuts and Bolts





A look at the for-profit business ventures of Ronnie Screwvala, his book included

Ronnie Screwvala had an early tryst with bankruptcy. At 18, his debt stood at roughly `17,000, and he had no job to fall back on. In his autobiography, Screwvala writes how his “two girlfriends“ helped out with a third of the debt, without revealing much else about his love life as a teenager.

The book Dream With Your Eyes Open: An Entrepreneurial Journey however reveals the twin loves of his life ­ clearly they are risk and showmanship. At the tender age of 10, along with his friends, Screwvala had organised his first show for his building residents -a combo offering of plays and concerts -for which he also sold tickets and distributed handbills. And the show he organised at age 18, which eventually left him bankrupt, taught him that it pays to dream big with conviction, and the money eventually comes around. So, at 52, even as philanthropy takes up most of his time, it is apt that Screwvala is taking on new risks and planning new shows. Apart from managing the private equity investments that he made while he led UTV, Screwvala has started three new ventures. Unilazer Sports is the most well known and owns the U Mumba Kabaddi team that takes part in the Pro Kabaddi league.There is also an effort to promote football at the grassroots level.“It is a for-profit venture but you may also call this my hobby,“ Screwvala says.

There are two more ventures, U Education and U Digital. U Edu cation is about post-graduate education online. “We are working on how to replicate classroom teaching online, and are developing the models,“ he says. The project was launched in January and Screwvala promised an investment of `100 crore.

U Digital is a digital media company formed with B Saikumar as managing director and Ajay Chacko as chief executive officer. Saikumar and Chacko had been group CEO and COO, respectively, at Network18 before Reliance Industries took it over. A lot of focus will be on videos on the web, especially news videos.

Both of these ventures were announced in January and Screwvala thinks they can take off by December 2015. Ask Screwvala if he sees himself running a business as a CEO ever again and he shakes his head to indicate a vehement `no'. “I am busier today than I was when I was running UTV. I am doing a lot of things and if I become CEO again, I will not be able to do all this,“ he says.

What he will persist with, though, are his dalliances with risk. What's more, his non-compete agreement with Disney for UTV will also end within a year. Watch the space -not this one but the one Disney is in!

ETM12APR15