Ronnie is a highly respected man in the Indian TV and movie circle. In his book ‘Dream with your eyes open’ he talks about his entrepreneurial journey and also shared his life lessons. Just that I did not like the ‘gyaan’ part of this book, at all. I was so looking forward to reading nitty gritty details of his 25 years of ups and down and make my own understanding but instead I got a top level view of 1 such incidents in his life in each of the chapters. A total of less than 20 real life examples. This left me wanting for more. I wanted so much more real life stories/ true accounts/ incidents to read.
To back up a little, let me tell you a little more about Ronnie and then you will know why am so highly impressed with his work and if he writes another book with just his life experiences (minus the gyaan) I will be the first person to buy that book.
So, Ronnie is the man who got Indians Shanti, the first ever daily running soap opera, setting up the trend for soap opera series, and you thought Ekta Kapoor did all the revolutionary work!, Ronnie got us such amazing programs at Zee TV in the initial years, when Zee started off as the first satellite channel in India, Ronnie could also be called the god father of cable TV distribution in India, with UTV he got us the best movies like Rang De Basanti, A Wednesday, Barfi! (to name just a few), he also started his business career by producing toothpaste (yes, you read it right) and just like this, there are so many super duper stories in his life. UTV’s TV channels – kids channel, news channel, teenage channel, movie channels etc. Before he sleeps am guessing he must be thinking his entire day was like a movie. And this should be happening each day! 🙂
But, sadly all of this did not come up in his book. He tried making this book a inspirational book and I was looking for an autobiography. Guess it was expectations mismatch.
Nevertheless, I would recommend you read this book for some inspiration or if you are interested in knowing more about Mr. Ronnie (and few similar entrepreneurs) then you can grab another book called “Riding the Wave” by Mini Menon. Under part 3 (The Outsiders), you will be able to read his life story in less than 50 pages. You are welcome.