Srikanth Bolla was born blind into a family of agriculturists in Seetharamapuram in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Bolla persisted and triumphed against adversity, fighting every step of the way, from getting an education to venturing into an entrepreneurial career.
Bolla faced discrimination at the Machilipatnam school, so his father shifted him to Hyderabad's Devnar School for the Blind, where he was guided and mentored by his special needs teacher Swarna Latha. Despitecompleting his schooling with distinction, he had a tough time securing admission to the Intermediate course. “I wanted to pursue science, but was told that I could only take up arts because of my disability. However, we filed a case and won and I went on to pass intermediate with distinction,” Bolla says.
He went on to secure 90 per cent in the High School examination. But again, he was rejected in junior college, and had to go to court to get admissions to higher learning institutions and even to write exams. He was repeatedly rejected by top Indian institutions, including the IITs, owing to his disability.
Bolla had the last laugh, however, graduating in business management from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. The time he spent at MIT shaped his world view.“Having faced challenges at every stage during my education, I always had the urge to do something differently,” he recalls.
Rejecting a couple of job offers from multinational corporations in the US, Bolla decided to become an entrepreneur so that he could be a job provider rather than be a job seeker. “I chose this option as it gave me a chance to do something for people who had similar problems as I did,” he says.
In 2014, pooling together a few lakh rupees, Bolla embarked on his entrepreneurial journey and set up Bollant Industries Ltd to fashion eco-friendly disposable products and packaging solutions, made entirely out of natural leaf and recycled paper. The product portfolio includes areca leaf plates, dinnerware, food trays, cups and eco-friendly products, including disposable plates, paper cups and biodegradable products made from betel leaves.
Bollant Industries Limited is on course to achieving a turnover of about ₹60 crore this fiscal year, and is valued at over ₹400 crore. And it has five factories, employing over 650 people, nearly half of whom are disabled men and women.