Skip to main content

This 23 year old Srikanth Bolla tricked fate to build a Rs 50-crore company

When he was born, neighbors in the village suggested that his parents smother him. It was better than the pain they would have to go through their lifetime, some said. He is a “useless” baby without eyes… being born blind is a sin, others added.

Twenty-three years later, Srikanth Bolla is standing tall living by his conviction that if the “world looks at me and says, ‘Srikanth, you can do nothing,’ I look back at the world and say I can do anything.”

Srikanth is the CEO of Hyderabad-based Bollant Industries, an organisation that employs uneducated and disabled employees to manufacture eco-friendly, disposable consumer packaging solutions, which is worth Rs 50 crores.

He considers himself the luckiest man alive, not because he is now a millionaire, but because his uneducated parents, who earned Rs 20,000 a year, did not heed any of the ‘advice’ they received and raised him with love and affection. “They are the richest people I know,” says Srikanth.

For Srikanth, despite life being more challenging than it is for most of us, he always aimed high. Born blind into an agricultural family in Sitaramapuram village in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, he was admitted to a blind school in Hyderabad. He excelled in studies and scored above 90 percent in his class 10 examinations. He wanted to be an engineer and applied for the physics, mathematics and chemistry group for pre-university. But the education department said that a visually challenged person could only take up humanities. He had to run from pillar to post to get a favourable judgement. With the support of T Swarnalatha, his teacher from class 4, who translated all the books for him in audio format and braille he managed to score 93 percent. But the hurdle came when he wanted to join IIT after his pre-university. No entrance coaching institute gave him admission.

What is it about stories like Srikanth’s that so inspire and fill one with hope? Could it be the multiple zeroes after a dollar sign or the belief that you and I can achieve similar success if we set our minds and hearts to it? Underdog success stories touch a raw nerve. After all, everyone faces adversity, they dream, and they work hard. It is another matter that only a few cross the threshold of limits set by society.

In Srikanth’s case, it is his sheer tenacity that shines through the dark clouds of his misfortune. Being born blind was just one part of the story. He was also born poor. And you know what that means in a society like ours.

In school, he was pushed to the back bench and not allowed to play. The little village school had no way of knowing what inclusion meant. When he wanted to take up science after his class X, he was denied the option because of his disability. All of 18, Srikanth not only fought the system but went on to become the first international blind student to be admitted to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

Today, Srikanth has four production plants, one each in Hubli (Karnataka) and Nizamabad (Telangana), and two in Hyderabad (Telangana). Another plant, which will be one hundred percent solar operated, is coming up in Sri City, an integrated business city in Andhra Pradesh, 55 kms from Chennai.

Angel investor Ravi Mantha, who met Srikanth about two years ago, was so impressed with his business acumen and vision for his company that he not only decided to mentor him but also invested in Srikanth’s company.

They are raising $2-million (around Rs 13 crores) in funding and have already raised Rs 9 crores. According to Ravi, his personal goal is to “take the company to IPO.” A vision to build a sustainable company with a workforce comprising 70 percent people with disability is no mean task. “Srikanth’s vision is inbuilt in the company. It is not just a lip service to CSR,” adds Ravi.

When Srikanth was growing up, his father, a farmer, would take him to the fields but the little boy couldn’t be of any help. His father then decided that he might as well study. “In my parent’s entrepreneurship model, I was a failure. In entrepreneurship, we have a lean business model where we evaluate an enterprise and say how quickly it fails.” Since the nearest school in his village was five kms away, he had to make his way there mostly on foot. He did this for two years. “No one acknowledged my presence. I was put in the last bench. I could not participate in the PT class. That was the time in my life I thought I was the poorest child in the world. It was not because of lack of money but because of loneliness.”

He chose his battles carefully and did his homework searching the Internet to find the best engineering programme for someone like himself. He applied to schools in the US and got into the top four – MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon. He went to MIT (with a scholarship) as the first international blind student in the school’s history.

It wasn’t easy adjusting to life there, but by and by he started to do well. Towards the end of his bachelor’s course when the ‘what next’ question came up, it brought him back to where he had started.

Bolla wants to pursue an MBA in an institute like Harvard and become India's president. No doubt his story is one oft quoted by his hero, the former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

“Show compassion and make people rich. Include people in your life and remove loneliness, and lastly, do something good; it will come back to you.”

Comments

Anu Bhardwaj said…
I read his life journey first time here https://www.drilers.com/post/srikanth-bolla-the-blind-man-behind-brighter-future that let me motivate myself to keep moving in life.

Popular posts from this blog

Kamma Cine Heroes

1) N.T.Rama Rao 2) Akkineni Nageswara Rao 3) Gattamaneni Krishna 4) Sobhan Babu (Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao) 5) Gummadi Venkatwsara Rao 6) Maganti Murali Mohan 7) Manchu Mohan Babu 8) Kongara Jaggayya 9) Giri babu (Yerra Seshagiri Rao) 10) Sridhar Surapaneni  11) Madala Ranga rao 12) Nandamuri Bala Krishna 13) SaiChand Tripuraneni 14) Akkineni Nagarjuna 15) Daggubati Venkatesh 16) Gadde Rajendra Prasad 17) Raja Sekhar (Kasukurthi) 18) Daggubati Raja 19) Bhagya Raj 20) Nandamuri Hari Krishna 21) Veeramachineni Jagapathi Babu 22) Meka Srikanth 23) Vadde Naveen 24) Tottempudi Venu 25) Gattamaneni Mahesh Babu 26) Junior. N.T.R 27) Sivaji Sontineni 28) Nandamuri Taraka Ratna 29) Nandamuri Kalyanaram 30) Yarlagadda Sumanth 31) Tottempudi Gopi Chand 32) Manchu Vishnu Vardhan 33) Manchu Manoj 34) Edara Naresh 35) Edara Aryan Rajesh 36) Ram Pothineni  37) Myneni Sarvanand 38) Daggubati Rana 39) Akkineni Naga Chaitanya 40) Nani (Ghanta Naveen Kumar) 41)

List of 30 Kamma Billionaires and rankings

The IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2021 shows that India has more than 1,000 individuals who have a net worth of  ₹ 1,000 crore or more across 119 cities. The cumulative wealth in the country has gone up by 51 per cent, while the average wealth has also increased by 25 per cent, the report by Hurun India said. 30 Kamma business and industrialists finds place in the list from AP, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. 14. Murali Divi Rs76,000 crores Divis Laboratories 179. Venkateswarlu Jasti 9,600 crores Suven Pharma  190. Veeraiah Chowdary Nannapaneni 9,100 crores NATCO Laboratories  209. Chava Satyanarayana 8,400 crores Laurus Labs 264. Satya Nadella 6,200 crores Microsoft 368. Mandava PrabhakaraRao 4,300 crores Nuziveedu seeds 377. Ella KrishnaMurthy 4,100 crores Bharat Biotech 384. Doppalapudi Bhaktavatsala Rao 4000 crores Privi Speciality Chemicals 398. Galla Ramachandra Naidu  3,900 crores Amara Raja Batteries  398. Chinta VisveswaraRao 3,900 crores Navayuga Engineering 409. Ma

A road named after Veerasamy Naidu in Singapore

Veerasamy Road - Little India/ Singapore Veerasamy Road was renamed twice in its history; it was originally called Inche Lane, and was renamed Jalan Tambah in 1910. In 1927, the road was renamed again as Veerasamy Road, in honour of Dr N. Veerasamy Naidu (1865-1926), one of Singapore’s first Indian doctors and a leader in the local Indian community. Dr N Veerasamy Naidu was born in 1864. He was the son of Narayanasamy Naidu and Ramanuja Ammal. He learned Tamil from the age of four from his grandfather, Kuppusamy Naidu. He studied English at the Raffles School in Singapore and first worked at the lawyer’s office of Mr Cook. Unsatisfied in his job and drawn to the study of medicinal herbs, he decided to pursue an education in medical science and eventually worked in a hospital owned by Govindasamy Naidu. He set up his own clinic called Indian Dispensary in Rochor Road and derived effective scientific and traditional treatments for a variety of new diseases. He was the President

Telugu TV Channels own and run by Kammas

1) ETV - Cherukuri Ramoji Rao 2) Gemini - Akkineni Manohara Prasad (Founder and stake holder) 3) MAA - (MAA - Music, MAA Movies) Nimmagadda Prasad, Akkineni Nagarjuna (Majority stake holders - Then sold to Sony) 4) TV9 - Velicheti Ravi Prakash, minority stake holder holds the grip 5) ETV2 - Cherukuri Ramoji Rao 6) TV 5 - Bollineni Rajagopala Naidu 7) NTV - Tummala Narendranath chowdary 8) Studio N - Narne Srinivasa Rao, sold to SivaramPrasad Vasireddi 9) Mahaa TV - Inaganti Venkatarao now taken over by Sujana Chowdary 10) I News - Tummala Narendra and Sabbineni Surendra (sold to Kiran Kumar Reddy) 11) ABN Andhra Jyothi - Radhakrishna Vemuri 12) Bhakti - Tummala Narendranath Chowdary 13) Vanitha - Tummala Narendranath Chowdary 14) ATV - Anil Sunkara  15) CVR News - Chalasani Venkateswara Rao 16) CVR Health - Chalasani Venkateswara Rao 17) Om TV - Chalasani Venkateswara Rao 18) YTV - Yalamanchili Venkateswara Rao (Aired from Vizag) 19) Express TV -  Chi

Kamma MLA and MPs (Andhra Pradesh)

Kamma MLAs in AP Assembly: 1. Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu Vizag TDP 2. Pendurthi Venkatesh Rajanagaram TDP 3. Vegulla Jogeswara Rao Mandapeta TDP 4. Burugupalli Sesha Rao Nidadavolu TDP 5. Chintamaneni Prabhakar Denduluru TDP 6. Kodali Venkateswara Rao Gudivada TDP 7. Dasari Balavardhana Rao Gannavaram TDP 8. Yalamanchili Ravi Vijayawada PRP 9. Devineni Umamaeshwara Rao Mylavaram TDP 10. Nadendla Manohar Tenali CONG 11. Dhulipala Narendra Ponnuru TDP 12. Kommalapati Sridhar Pedakurapadu TDP 13. Pattipati Pulla Rao Chilakaluripet TDP 14. Yaraparineni Srinivasa Rao Gurajala TDP 15. Gonuguntla VSR Anjaneyulu Vinukonda TDP 16. Gottipati Ravi Kumar Addanki CONG 17. Daggubati Venkateswara Rao Parchur CONG 18. Kurugundla Ramakrishna Venkatagiri TDP 19. Galla Aruna Kumari Chandragiri CONG 20. Nara Chandrababau Naidu Kuppam TDP 21. Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu Nagari TDP 22. Payyavula Kesav Uravakonda TDP 23. Paritala Sunitha Raptadu TDP 24. Konka Meenakshi

Richest man in Andhra Pradesh

It is neither Reddy nor Raju. It is only Kamma .. According to the Forbes magazine, Lagadapati Madhusudhan Rao ( 41 ) is the richest person in Andhra Prades h stands at No- 33 among the richest persons in India . Also he is the youngest in the list, there is no Andhrite in the list. Lagadapati Madhusudhan Rao is the Chairman - Lanco Infratech Ltd , the Hyderabad-based diversified group. His net worth is 1.9 billion dollars., ahead of Vijay Mallya, N.R. Narayana Murthy. Divi Murali of Divi's Lab is narrowly missed the berth in the list. Murali, best of luck next year..

Kamma Business/Industry - AP (Media & Entertainment)

News papers 1) Eenadu - Cherukuri Ramoji Rao 2) Andhra Jyothi - Vemuri Radha Krishna Television 1) ETV - Cherukuri Ramoji Ravo 2) Gemini - Akkineni Manohara Prasad (Founder and stake holder) 3) MAA - (MAA - Music, MAA Music) Nimmagadda Prasad, Akkineni Nagarjuna (Majority stake holders) 4) TV9 - Velicheti Ravi Prakash 5) ETV2 - Cherukuri Ramoji Rao 6) ABN - Vemuri RadhaKrishna 7) TV 5 - Bollineni Rajagopala Naidu 8) NTV - Tummala Narendranath chowdary 8) Studio N - Jr.NTR 9) Mahaa TV - Inaganti Venkatarao 10) I News - Tummala Narendra, Sabbineni Surendra 11) ATV - Anil Sunkara 12) Bhakti - Tummala Narendranath Chowdary 13) Vanitha - Tummala Narendranath Chowdary 14) Channel 4 - NT Chowdary (Nageli Thirupalappa Chowdary) 15) CVR News - Chalasani Venkateswara Rao 16) CVR Health - Chalasani Venkateswara Rao 17) TV6 - Nara Lokesh

Kamma Movie Directors

List of Kamma Movie Ditrectors 1) Gudavalli Ramabrahmam 2) Akkineni Lakshmi Vara Prasad (LV Prasad) 3) Kovelamudi Bapayya 4) Veeramachineni Madhusudhana Rao 5) Kovelamudi S.Prakasa Rao 6) Kolli Pratyagatma 7) G.Sambasiva Rao 8) Tammareddy Krishnamurthy 9) Mannava Balayya 10) Tatineni Prakasa Rao 11) Tatineni Rama Rao 12) Tatineni Prasad 13) Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao 14) Gutta Ramineedu 15) Kolli Hemambaradhara Rao  16) Uppalapati Visveswara Rao 17) Tripuraneni Maharadhi 18) Tripuraneni Gopichand 19) Tottempudi Krishna 20) Madala Ranga Rao 21) Siva Nageswara Rao 22) Uppalapati Narayana Rao 23) P.Sarat 24) A.Mohan Gandhi 25) Bezawada Gopal 26) T.Kranthi Kumar 27) Maganti Vijaya Bapineedu 28) Tammareddy Bharadwaj 29) Akkineni Kutumba Rao 30) K.Vasu 31) Edara VV Satyanarayana 32) Muppalaneni Siva 33) Yalamanchili VS Chowdary 34) Theja Jasti 35) Sreenu Vytla 36) Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli 37) Vemulapalli Srikanth 38) AS Ravikumar Chowdary 39) Kod

A Road named after Vajendla Venkateswara Rao in Mumbai

V V Rao Marg, Nariman Point, 400021 street is located in the Mumbai City, Mumbai District, Maharashtra state, India was named after Late. Vagendla Venkateswara Rao.   Venkateshwara Rao Vajendla also known as "V V Rao"  (October 12, 1941 - October 21, 1999) was born in  Pamulapadu Village, Guntur District. He served as Chief Fire Officer Mumbai Fire Brigade was awarded President’s Fire Service Medal for Distinguished Service in 26th January, 1997. V V Rao has worked in the fire brigade for 42 years.   For the first time a chief fire officer was given the guard of honour after his death was in 1999, when the chief fire officer was V V Rao. His body was taken in a truck to Shivaji Park crematorium. In October 1999, then CFO VV Rao had died following a cardiac arrest in the civic headquarters. His son Ananda Rao Vegendla married BJP leader Late.Pramod Mahajan's daughter Poonam Mahajan alias Poonam Vajendla Rao (MP from Mumbai North Central) 

Alapati Tataiya - The inspirational leader behind the founding of The National Federation Party - Fiji

National Federation Party - Fiji that started as the Citizens Federation in 1963, is 58 years old in 2021. The roots of The National Federation Party under which the idea of the party was first mooted in Rakiraki by Alapati Kamma Tataiya born under the shady mango tree of Vaileka, Rakiraki, bearing witness to what evolved into an indestructible political force and the South Pacific’s oldest political party. ALAPATI TATAIYA - who came to Fiji in 1890 as an indentured Labourer from Tenali, the Madras Presidency (now Andhra Pradesh) and settled in Qalau, Rakiraki. As an avid community worker, he was involved in the launching and establishment of the Fiji Kisan Sangh in 1937 and Dakshina India Andhra Sangam of Fiji in 1941. By 1962, he was in the fold of the Cane Growers Federation after the successful advocacy for the cane growers by the late Mr. AD Patel before the Sir Malcolm Trustum Eve Commission in 1961. It was Mr. Tataiya in 1963 who on the eve of the 1963 Fiji Legislative Council