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
📹: Raj Shamani
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Short filmTranscript
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.