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Just as impossible as it is to predict a film’s box office verdict, so is the fate of film professionals. While the biggest stars can become irrelevant, even those who have faced back-to-back failures can rise to the top, and all it takes for fortunes to change is one Friday. While there are many in Bollywood whose journeys exemplify the industry’s uncertain nature, arguably the most notable is producer Ronnie Screwvala of RSVP Movies, who became one of the wealthiest figures in Hindi cinema despite his first few movies bombing.
Recalling his entry into cinema, Ronnie recently revealed that his debut as a producer, Dil Ke Jharoke Main (1997), was a major box office failure. Featuring Manisha Koirala, Mamik Singh, and Vikas Bhalla in lead roles, the movie was produced by Ronnie and his wife Zarina under the banner UTV Motion Pictures. “It was a massive flop. The movie featured a scene in which a cobra had to drink milk. Usually, cobras don’t drink milk when we are shooting, but ours did. Seeing this, the director said that the movie would be a superhit because the cobra had drunk the milk. ‘You are worried. (be carefree),’ he said. The movie turned out to be my biggest flop,” he shared during a session organised by Masters’ Union.
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When asked how he kept going despite facing five consecutive flops, Ronnie Screwvala said that it was simply because he did not have a “plan B.” He continued, “From following the herd to ‘I might as well behave like the outsider’ was the learning curve. I didn’t have to change. I just had to stop what I was trying to be and embrace what I always wanted to be. When we started the media business and channels, it was in that right spirit of exactly how we saw it. With movies, however, I was out of my depth, and therefore I wanted to follow the herd. Eventually, I decided to go back to my own conviction and self-belief of how I wanted to build the company, the business and the brand.” He also cited his lower-middle-class upbringing, his lack of a Plan B, and his father’s assertion that he wouldn’t be able to financially support him during crises as motivating factors in not giving up.
Ronnie and wife Zarina Screwvala at the Colors Screen Awards 2013. (File photo/Ganesh Shirsekar)
Ronnie Screwvala greenlit Lakshya, Swades and Rang De Basanti together
He further revealed that UTV greenlit Lakshya, Swades, and Rang De Basanti together without knowing which would work. Ronnie said, “At the heart of it, we wanted to do something disruptive. We wanted to tell stories in a different manner. We wanted younger blood. We wanted to talk to newer directors. We didn’t want anyone sitting in the room and saying, ‘I know how to do this’ or think only about casting. We wanted to prioritise the script and not the casting.”
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Despite facing five consecutive flops, including director Farhan Akhtar’s Hrithik Roshan-Preity Zinta starrer Lakshya and Ashutosh Gowariker’s Shah Rukh Khan-Gayatri Joshi starrer SwadesRonnie Screwvala slowly began making inroads with smaller projects like D and Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh. He, Zarina, and UTV eventually made their mark with the critical and commercial success of Rang De Basanti.
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After the UTV chapterRonnie founded RSVP Movies and has since produced notable films like Lust Stories, Uri: The Surgical Strike, Raat Akeli Hai, Paava Kadhaigal, Lust Stories 2, Sam Bahadur, Ullozhukku, and Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders, among others. The Hurun India Rich List 2025 named Ronnie the richest man in Bollywood with a net worth of $1.5 billion (about Rs 13,314 crore), positioning him even above Bollywood’s Baadshah Shah Rukh Khan (Rs 12,490 crore).
