HOUSES IN ASIA...BUT NOT THE BIGGEST YET!

UTV IS NOW ONE OF THE LARGEST PRODUCTION HOUSES IN ASIA...BUT NOT THE BIGGEST YET! CAN RONNIE SCREWVALA AND HIS TEAM MAKE UTV THE FACE OF INDIA TO THE MEDIA WORLD? B&E’S SHEPHALI BHATT PROVIDES A DEEP INVESTIGATION FROM RIGHT INSIDE UTV WITH EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS FROM UTV’S TOP MANAGEMENT

While Ronnie was in the media business purely due to his passion for working in the industry, Chandra had a completely different agenda; he was a thorough-cut businessman looking for profits (“I wanted to see a business opportunity ahead of its time and back it up passionately,” Chandra shared with B&E). So while Chandra followed up each and every innovative business idea with investments into a wide array of businesses to form a behemoth group (that today has interests in the realm of media, technology, entertainment, infrastructure, education, cricket and precious metals; Essel is even the world’s largest packaging company today), Ronnie was trying to convince others (like Chandra’s competitor Murdoch and Warberg Pincus) to invest into UTV – Star TV’s investment in UTV became the first ever foreign investment in media in India’s corporate history. Over time, Ronnie bought Vijay TV, sold it off again to Murdoch, then started Hungama, sold even that to Disney, and somewhere along the line, crossed over from being a ‘media professional’ to being a passionate businessman – just like Chandra. Ergo, today, though their business histories have inevitably diverged, comparisons have as inevitably come together. Subhash Chandra started it all, attempting to make India the face of Asia to the global media world. Ronnie seems to have taken up the initiative from a parallel end. But can Ronnie go the whole hog and finish what Subhash Chandra started? That’s the cutting edge question facing the media world today.

While Chandra’s ascent was largely credited to satellite TV, Screwvala’s most unputdownable claim to media glory is obviously movie production, marketing and distribution, wherein his company now is remarkably the largest production studio in South Asia, having produced widely acclaimed movies like Jodha Akbar, Rang De Basanti, Rajneeti, DevD, A Wednesday, Wake Up Sid and Kameeney. UTV has gone a step further to become the first Indian production house to co-produce a Hollywood movie with 20th Century Fox – M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening (which grossed $170 million at the global box office). It co-produced two Hollywood movies with Fox Searchlight in 2007 – The Namesake directed by Mira Nair and I Think I Love My Wife directed by Chris Rock. The company also managed notable co-production agreements with Sony Pictures Entertainment and actor Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. In addition to that, Walt Disney has been an integral investor in UTV and holds more than 50% of its shares.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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