Zarina Screwvala is the managing trustee of Swades Foundation, an organisation dedicated to uplift rural India. She founded the organisation along with her husband Ronnie Screwvala. Having moved to India from the US at the age of 8, she finished her schooling from J.B. Petit School for Girls, and also received her Bachelor’s degree from Xavier’s Institute of Communications.
She started her career as a production manager for a play that was produced by the renowned theatre artist Pearl Padamsee. In 1990, she co-founded UTV with Ronnie and their business partner Deven Khote, which showcased the first-ever reality show in India, Saanp Seedi in 1992.
In 2004, Zarina and Ronnie launched UTV's CSR wing called Society to Heal, Aid, Restore, Educate (SHARE) to empower lives across villages in Maharashtra. In 2012, SHARE was re-launched as Swades Foundation, which is fully dedicated to rural empowerment in the Raigad and Ratnagiri districts of Maharashtra.
