Reliance Big Entertainment, the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s media and entertainment division, has been garnering a continuous stream of media coverage since a landmark announcement made at Cannes earlier this year. In May, the company announced that it would invest a billion dollars (around Rs4,400 crore) in seven Hollywood production houses—owned by stars such as George Clooney and Tom Hanks—to develop 30 scripts and, eventually, 10 films. This was followed by an agreement for an equally big tie-up with Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks, which is expected to be signed soon.
Planet Hollywood: Sawhney’s company will now face off with the biggest film studios in the US.
While the company has not shied away from high-profile media mileage, its president, Rajesh Sawhney, prefers to keep it low-key. After months of persuasion, Sawhney agrees to talk to
Lounge on two conditions: One, he will not field too many personal questions and two, we will meet for lunch during a weekday. His weekday evenings, I am told, are usually booked for overseas conference calls and the weekends are reserved for the family.
Sawhney’s reluctance to be in the limelight could perhaps be explained by his choice of employers. Before Reliance Entertainment, he worked with the leading media house Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL) for 14 years. Both are companies that prefer their ventures, rather than the managers behind them, to hog media attention—key executives are seldom found making big statements or giving expansive interviews.
Eventually, Sawhney agrees to meet for lunch at The Oberoi in Mumbai. On the apppointed day, he arrives 7 minutes before time and graciously sends me a text message saying: “Reached. Take your time.”
“I will have a light lunch,” he says as we make ourselves comfortable at Tiffin, the hotel’s Pacific Rim and Indian cuisine restaurant. As we browse through the menu, Sawhney asks me if “life is too hectic”. I am forthright: “I start each day with at least 10 items on my to-do list and go back home with half of them not done.” I add that while a colleague felt I was inefficient, a friend thought I’d bitten off more than I could chew.
Sawhney has a different perspective on the situation: “I don’t agree with either of them. I say it’s good to have an unfinished list than to not have one at all. For me, it’s the nature of the list that will determine the good and bad.” After a pause, he adds: “The list should point to a consistent direction. That’s all I will worry about.”
What about Sawhney? Does he have a list? And does it point in a direction? “I don’t remember having written, ‘I have to become the CEO or the president of some company’ on my list ever. But yes, life has largely moved in a direction and I am wherever I am because of consistency in what I sought to do,” he says.