In the film business, name recognition is everything. Luckily for Ronnie Screwvala nobody is going to forget his.
"It is a great ice breaker that always gets the meeting off to a bright start," the Mumbai media mogul grins before explaining that his surname probably meant his forefathers, from the Parsi minority, were involved in carpentry. "I don't think it would be the other interpretation."
In the past two years Screwvala has become the most sought after movie producer in Indian cinema with his UTV studio remoulding Bollywood in Hollywood's image.
He co-produced, with Rupert Murdoch's Fox studios, the summer hit the Namesake, set in Calcutta and Boston. Last month saw his biggest coup when UTV announced it was teaming up with Fox to produce the next film by M Night Shyamalan, the director behind Signs and the Sixth Sense, for £29m.
With a dozen films ready to realise next year, Screwvala has big plans to expand. The Mumbai-listed group aims to raise £30m-40m by listing all its motion picture production activities on London's Aim market next month.
Screwvala says UTV is an Indian business with an "unique international story" that wants to be benchmarked against western firms. He also needs "international currency" for deals.
"Our next stage of growth could come from mergers and acquisitions and for that we need an international currency to be looked at seriously when we went out for a deal. Are we looking at western companies to buy? Yes."
A former cable salesman, Screwvala has quietly built up a media empire in India on a triple-pronged strategy as a broadcaster, film-maker and new media company. Last year revenues were £25m. Screwvala says they will be five times as large by 2009.
UTV, which began life as a production company, made its name by creating a teenagers' channel, Humgama, in India from scratch and selling it to Disney for £15m last year. Disney also paid £7.5m for a 15% stake in UTV. "We wanted a long-term strategic partnership with Disney."
Bollywood is Screwvala's first love. The country churns out 1,000 movies a year but is only a £1bn business. Hollywood by contrast produces half the number of films but makes nine times more money.
To make money UTV opted to professionalise an industry still largely in the hands of movie dynasties. It draws up budgets, sticks to shooting timetables, lays out a marketing strategy and makes distribution plans.
Gone too are the three hours of song and dance interspersed with tearful family reconciliations. Screwvala is producing shorter films with tauter scripts. The movies are more realistic and a little less escapist.
Oscar nomination
The first big success was Rang de Basanti, a film about disaffected youth that was nominated for an Oscar. His latest movie Metro, which premiered in London last week, features three lovelorn couples and most notably sees Shilpa Shetty as a bored housewife tempted by infidelity.
Next week he travels to the Cannes festival with another film, Goal, about an amateur football team in west London.
"It is a universal story about the underdog winning against the big boys. We are breaking the mould in terms of genre and storytelling. Indian movies are traditionally known for high entertainment and long duration. But young people in Indian cities are very discerning these days and they will not spend three hours watching a movie."
All that is happening in the country, says Screwvala, is that much like the western world urban India is becoming time-poor and cash-rich. "It is the same in Hollywood. If King Kong did not work as well as it should have it was because it was a three-hour movie."
When Screwvala talks about Hollywood these days people listen. Scripts for a UTV movie about an British stuntwomen working in Burma at the end of the the second world war lie with Keira Knightley and Uma Thurman.
He also backed the latest film by the US comedian Chris Rock, a rom-com called I Think I Love My Wife. Requiring only £6m to make, it was a "compelling budget for a movie with someone like Chris Rock. And it has made back the money."
That appears to be just the beginning. UTV's film division will make two Will Smith movies - one is animated and the other is a more trademark action flick.
The US actor first came to India last year to promote an entertainment channel for Sony but ended up chatting with Screwvala. The result was a £15m co-production deal with Sony and Smith's Overbrook Entertainment.
The cartoon film has generated a buzz in the industry because it potentially marries Hollywood scriptwriters with Smith's appeal and low-cost Indian animation. Analysts point out that Hoodwinked, a low-cost cartoon feature made in Spain for only £6m, grossed £50m in 2005.
"Animation is something we are good at," says Screwvala. "A Shrek may cost $100m to make [in Hollywood], but if you get it right the outlay may be just $30m or $25m."
Video games are also a key part of Screwvala's plans. Last year he spent £16m buying controlling interests in the mobile phone game designer Indiagames and the UK-based console gaming company Ignition. What caught Screwvala's eye in the British company was a "high-end" game called War Devil that he thought could also become a movie a la Lara Croft.
Although in conversation the 50-year-old is languid and smooth, it is clear he is a man in a hurry. From July he begins to roll out eight new television channels, focusing on horror, world cinema and entertainment and hoping to attract to the country's most elusive and populous demographic: 16-35-year-olds.
"[India] is a growing market and an opportunity. Sometimes the tail wags the dog but really the content creates the demand."
