Movie magnate and entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala secured a spot on Forbes World's Billionaires list. On Wednesday (April 2), the magazine unveiled a fresh list of 3,028 billionaires for this year.
Ronnie Screwvala, producer of films such as Jodhaa Akbar, Fashion, Delhi Belly and Barfi among others, is the only person from the Hindi cinema world with a wealth amounting to over a billion dollars. The entrepreneur's net worth is $1.5 billion (Rs 112.5 billion), as per the Forbes list.
This makes Ronnie Screwvala wealthier than the combined net worth of the three Bollywood superstars — Shah Rukh Khan ($770 million), Salman Khan ($390 million) and Aamir Khan ($220 million), which is $1.38 billion.
Ronnie Screwvala, born in Mumbai, kicked off his entrepreneurial journey in the 1970s by manufacturing toothbrushes. The 68-year-old also holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Mumbai University.
In 1990, Ronnie Screwvala launched UTV, which was later renamed UTV Motion Pictures. The company produced iconic films in the next 2 decades. Some of them were Swades, Rang De Basanti, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Jodhaa Akbar, Fashion, Delhi Belly and Barfi.
The TV shows produced by UTV Motion Pictures were Shanti, Hip Hip Hurray, Shaka Laka Boom Boom, Khichdi and Shararat.
He sold his stake in UTV to the Walt Disney Company for over $450 million in 2012 and ran the India unit as managing director, reported Forbes.
Ronnie Screwvala is also the co-founder and chairperson of the Mumbai-based edtech firm upGrad.
Recently, Ronnie Screwvala opened up about the importance of theatre and how it shaped his path. He told the Times of India, "Some people take sports. I think I was blessed to be inclined towards theatre. And I think theatre taught me everything that I wanted to know today, which is soft skills, collaborativeness, participation, and a sense of self-confidence.”
Pointing at India's youth today and their aspirations, he added, “They're wired very differently. Their inquisitiveness and their curiosities are at a different level. I think the biggest challenge here is the sense of expectation of the youth. And I think if we disappoint them, we are disappointing ourselves as a society.”
Ronnie Screwvala and his wife Zarina founded the nonprofit Swades Foundation, which focuses on rural upliftment projects.