On March 16, at the FT ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business Awards in London, 25-year-old Srikanth Bolla found himself in the esteemed company of steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and other luminaries from the international business world. It was yet another milestone for Bolla, whose company, Bollant Industries, was nominated for an award in the Development Market category. The company, which makes packaging materials from agricultural waste and recycled paper, has a turnover of Rs 25 crore. It employs 600 people, more than 65 per cent of whom are differently abled.
Bolla, of Seetharamapuram in Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, was born blind. His parents were farmers who owned a small plot of land that yielded a meagre income. He attended a local primary school but was unhappy there. “No one acknowledged my presence,” says Bolla. “I was made to sit on the last bench and was not allowed to participate in the PT class.”
Sensing that his son was feeling isolated in school, Bolla’s father enrolled him at the Deonar School for the Blind in Hyderabad. “Adjusting there was difficult,” says Bolla, who was then seven years old. “I spoke the village slang and was accustomed to my mother doing everything for me.” Soon, however, he began enjoying school and thrived in the new environment. He excelled in academics, won numerous awards for debating and creative writing, played state and national-level chess tournaments, and was selected to the state blind cricket team. “I am not challenged,” says Bolla, confidently. “I challenge! I always wanted to be a leader, bring about an element of change, and be financially independent.”
Srikanth and other awardees flank Lakshmi Mittal during the FT ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business Awards in London.
Bolla credits his English teacher and mentor, T. Swarnalatha, for his confidence and growth. “Many students were close to me, but Srikanth was special,” says Swarnalatha. “He always tagged along behind me. He enjoyed interacting with guests who visited the school and would introduce them on stage as if he had known them all his life.” Swarnalatha and her friends financially supported Bolla through school. He currently stays with her as a paying guest.
After excelling in the class X exams, Bolla wanted to pursue science. But he was denied permission because of his disability. Thus, at age 18, Bolla went to court and obtained an individual government order permitting him to pursue science. He scored 93 per cent in class XII.
Through his senior school years, Bolla was actively involved in Lead India 2020—a programme spearheaded by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, to train India’s youth in leadership, human values and employability skills—where he was a youth leader, training thousands of students. At a session in Coimbatore, Kalam asked who among the students wanted to be president of India. Bolla raised his hand and Kalam approached him and helped him on to the stage. “Kalam saab called me his role model,” says Bolla. “He was definitely my role model and greatest inspiration.”
At another session, Bolla met Ravi Gund-lapalli, CEO and founder of MentorCloud, an employee-to-employee learning platform for enterprises. Gundlapalli advised Bolla to apply to universities abroad and helped him with the application process. Bolla became the first international blind student to get admission to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which offered him full scholarship.
Future clear: Swarnalatha was Bolla’s English teacher and his inspiration. She is now director and COO of Bollant Industries | K.R. Vinayan
After completing his undergraduate course at the institute, Bolla did a business management course at its Sloan School of Management, where he would sneakily help classmates in tests. “We built our own sign language,” says Bolla, with a grin. “If I tapped my shoe once, the answer was ‘A’, if I requested permission to go to the toilet, the answer was ‘B’, and so on. Maybe it was wrong, but I wanted everyone to pass. I cherish those moments.”
In 2011, Bolla returned to Hyderabad. As he set up his company, he had three goals in mind: empower unskilled labour, create eco-friendly products, and create income for farmers. “I wanted to play a role in providing jobs, particularly to those with different abilities,” says Bolla.
Currently, the company has 10 manufacturing units that produce eco-friendly disposable products and packaging material from natural leaf and recycled paper. Fifteen per cent of the products are exported to the US, Australia and Germany.
One of 10 manufacturing units of Bollant Industries | Mohammed Aleemuddin
First to invest in Bollant Industries was Ravi Mantha, a writer and angel investor from Hyderabad. “I first met Srikanth when he was 20,” says Mantha. “He had this boundless energy. When I saw his first factory—a small shack made of bamboo poles with a thatched roof, where four of the six employees were differently abled, making paper plates and cups—I was truly impressed and signed a cheque for $1,00,000. I would normally do due diligence before investing, but in his case, I merely trusted his ability.” Mantha is now on the company board and actively involved in operations. “Srikanth might be visually impaired, but his other senses are sharp, especially his hearing,” says Mantha. “He walks into a factory and tells workers which machine is not performing at its optimum and will go and set it right. He is a master at execution, is technically competent and good at finance.”
Bollant has received additional funding from several industrialists and investors including Ratan Tata, S.P. Reddy and Srini Raju, as well as from GMR Group and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. Bolla is an easy-going boss and has an open-door policy. “He is very tolerant and never loses his temper,” says his secretary Ashwini Vadla. A voracious reader, Bolla stays up at night reading books on his braille machine, at a speed three times higher than the standard setting!
