BROADCAST BARON: Ronnie Screwvala

Relentless UTV scores big time with the restless youth

CYRUS H. MERCHANT Times News Network (BOMBAY TIMES; January 20, 2010)

On Marathon Sunday while most of Mumbai ran, Ronnie Screwvala, head of UTV, and his brilliant creative director (UTV Network) Zarina Mehta celebrated their recent success. They were happy, clearly. When life is on a song, you walk on the high notes. The broadcasting network, ably led by CEO MK Anand, has come of age and is now one of the top five players. “We’ve broken the mould and are very excited about the speed which with we did it,” beams Ronnie. They’d launched it barely two years ago with four speciality channels and without a General Entertainment Channel. In television parlance that’s railroading your TRPs. But much to everyone’s surprise, it took off, the graph gasped and they’re at the top. Going against the tide, helps indeed.

Up until now youth TV meant only music, but with their quick moving, these two TV cats and their terrific team across the board went for the jugular of the Indian youth: careers, relationships, the intricacies of Life. They took the power of their network, spread their nets wide, and there with producing youth-oriented big hits of Indian cinema and here with broadcasting they have almost covered the neglected space: the blooming heart of the young.

“We were passionate, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to crack it,” Ronnie offers. What he doesn’t say is they were also More >