Meet Ronnie Screwvala, the new shark on the panel

Brut India

From “Swades” to “Sam Bahadur”... Ronnie Screwvala, the film producer and Shark Tank India judge, shares what’s running through his mind when he decides to back a movie.  : Raj Shamani

Transcript

00:00From my early days, whether it was Swades or whether it was Rang De Basanti,

00:03those were the breakout stories that appealed to me.

00:05I think people definitely want a certain sense of context and a certain sense of realism.

00:30So firstly, I don't think, if I have an investment mindset, I'll crash and burn.

00:58What kind of movies you create, you feel like, oh, this is going to work in a movie?

01:00I think I understand consumers and I keep wanting to understand consumers in a different manner,

01:05number one. Number two, I want to be true to storytelling in the way I want to necessarily

01:09do it. What is that? Like, what do you understand about consumers?

01:13Yeah. So obviously today, more than ever before, outside of the fact that this is an entertainment

01:18sector, I think people definitely want a certain sense of context and a certain sense of realism.

01:23So I think the movies we've made versus, see, I came from the outsider. So being an outsider,

01:27to me, the song dance family approach and everything goes and either that or the dishoom

01:32dishoom or just hardcore nonsensical, but it works in a hardcore, leave your brains behind.

01:40I can't relate with that. I wouldn't be able to make it better. I'd only make it worse. So I

01:44stayed out of it. So then therefore, from my early days, whether it was Swades or whether it was

01:49Rang De Basanti, those were the breakout stories that appealed to me. Right. And I guess maybe to

01:55that extent in those early days, I do believe that I was part of the formula that allowed it

02:00to happen. Maybe if I hadn't backed it, maybe somebody else would not have backed it. And

02:04therefore, it may not have happened. But being the outsider gave you the sense that if I stay

02:08with my values. Now, I was not doing it saying I want to talk about an audience that I don't know

02:12exists. I don't make movies myself because if I did, I would not make 99% of the movies that I

02:17would make because what I want to see, if I want relaxing versus what I want to see from what I

02:22want to do as a passion are two different things. So to me, I think getting the message across

02:27having a sense of realism, that doesn't mean that everyone should do that. But I'm saying there's so

02:31many people doing the other stuff in any case that one more person doing that doesn't make any sense.

02:36So that's my way of storytelling. Now, when I was running it as a business to what I'm doing today

02:42with RSVP as a passion are two different things. And the reason is when you're running a business,

02:4750-60% of your decisions are what you have to do. And 40% what you want to do. When you're doing it

02:53as a passion, 100% better be what you want to do and nothing that you have to do because it's a

02:58passion. You don't have to do. You don't have to get up in the morning and play golf. You don't

03:02have to go to the squash court. You don't have to play chess or whatever else you want to do.

03:07So that is a very liberating sense of being able to then do what you want to do because

03:12you can say no 99 times. When you're running a business, you can't say no 99 times.

03:17You can't say no 99 times. You can't say no 99 times. You can't say no 99 times.

03:21You can't say no 99 times. You can't say no 99 times. You can't say no 99 times.

03:25You can't say no 99 times. You can't say no 99 times.

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