Background
Screwvala was born in Mumbai on June 8, 1956 in a Parsi family. His father was an executive at the British firms J L Morrison and Smith & Nephew.
Screwvala was born in Mumbai on June 8, 1956 in a Parsi family. His father was an executive at the British firms J L Morrison and Smith & Nephew.
Screwvala also had a keen interest in theatre while in school and acted in professional plays with Bombay theatre greats like Pearl and Alyque Padamsee. He portrayed the roles of Harold ‘Happy’ Loman in Death of a Salesman and Cassio in Othello.
At the time when there was only Doordarshan, the state television provider, Network offered a three-hour video channel showing movies to some homes in Maker Towers in the affluent Cuffe Parade area of Mumbai. He also started producing advertisements and content for Doordarshan with serials like Lifeline and Shanti.
Screwvala founded the UTV Group in 1990 providing television content to broadcasters. In a span of less than 2 decades, UTV expanded into broadcasting, gaming, film and other businesses. The first film produced by his company was Dil Ke Jharoke Main.He also launched the Hungama Channel in 2004 which was highly succesful and become one of the leading chidren's television channels in India UTV group became listed on the Indian Stock Exchange in 2005.