Screwvala back in the ring as film producer
After a hiatus of six years, Ronnie Screwvala is back donning the producer’s hat with RSVP, his new production house. The media veteran, who set up UTV Group in the early 90s and sold it off to The Walt Disney Company in 2012, says the venture fulfills a “creatively unfinished business”. And, wants to flip the model from his previous outing as a producer.
This means staying away from the studio model, big teams or feeling the need to enter co-productions. “This time, I want to do things differently. Last time, there was a compulsion to scale up. This time, I have the liberty to say no more often than yes and I intend to (make the most of it). This time, the goal is to originate content. Also, last time, film production was the core of the business. This time, it has around 20 per cent of my attention, with Swades (NGO), Upgrad (online education start-up) and sports taking up the rest of my time,” he says. Maoist guerillas ambushed a police party and killed seven jawans who were providing security cover to a road construction project in restive Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
The victims comprised four from the Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF), the state police’s reserve force and three from the district police. It took place near Cholnar village — about 450 km from the capital here — around noon on Sunday, when the state was gearing up to welcome Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Singh landed in Sarguja, in the north corner of Chhattisgarh, to attend Central Reserve Police Force programme in the evening. Dantewada is in the extreme south of the state.
For the past month, the rebels had been targeting infrastructure projects in Bastar region and had set vehicles engaged in work on fire. On Sunday afternoon, the security personnel who died were returning after escorting transportation of building materials required for ongoing PalnarKirandul road.
The name of the company engaged in the project has not been disclosed for security reasons. The jeep was blown by detonating Improvised Explosive Device (IED). Vivekanand Sinha, the inspector general (Bastar Range), said the impact was so severe that a huge crater developed in the site with the vehicle tossed several feet high