Srikanth Bolla

Coming from a humble background, Srikanth Bolla has crossed several hurdles over the past 30 years to become an entrepreneur, employing several hundred people, about half of them differently-abled and women.

Born blind into a family of a rice farmer in Seetharamapuram in Andhra Pradesh’s Machilipatnam district, Bolla has had to fight at every stage, including pursuing education, and choice of the subject, to defy the system. However, as an entrepreneur, managing five factories of Bollant Industries as its CEO, he has been driving the change while defying the odds. He was bl’s Young Changemaker in 2018.

Entrepreneurial journey

In 2014, pooling in a few lakh rupees, he began his entrepreneurial journey setting up Bollant Industries Ltd. From a small facility in Hyderabad, Bolla has expanded it to five manufacturing units. “Having seen the importance of paper-based plates and products in the US, where a couple of companies make millions of dollars, I decided to foray into this segment, which was unorganised and fragmented but had a huge potential in India,” he says.

Not content with what he and his company have achieved over the years, Bolla is planning to further ramp up production and significantly increase the turnover of the company.

In 2018, Bollant acquired an ailing packaging unit near Hyderabad and turned it around. His group employs more than 200 women. Today, Bollant has three manufacturing units in Hyderabad, and one each at Tumkur and Nizamabad. It is considering another plant in Bidar in Karnataka and another in Gujarat.

The move to set up new plants comes in the backdrop of the plans to diversify into new and sustainable areas to manufacture surfactants and body-care products, having export potential.

With his paper-based products and packaging materials, he made inroads into leading corporate houses and the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam. Bolla’s focus has been on employing differently-abled people and helping environmental restoration by producing sustainable products. The focus, therefore, is on paper-based items. Agricultural waste, which is usually burnt or disposed of, is now used by Bollant to make paper products from leaves and agricultural waste. The company’s products include areca leaf plates, dinnerware, food trays, cups and eco-friendly products including disposable plates, paper cups and biodegradable products made from betel leaves.

Biopic on Bolla

Inspired by the challenges he had to endure during his student days and later as an entrepreneur, Srikanth, a biopic tracing the journey of Srikanth Bolla’s grit and determination, released earlier this year, has been received well. Starring Rajkummar Rao, the film directed by Tushar Hiranandani has had a decent acceptance at the box office and on Netflix. It celebrates his grit and determination. Within weeks of its release, it had become one of the popular films.

Srikanth Bolla is a rebel and a social reformer. “Instead of being an individual, who would have been happy to work and make a living, I decided to be an entrepreneur, and make a difference to society,” he says. Srikanth continues to radiate that resilience and determination to pursue his dreams.

The Changemaker Awards 2024 is being held in New Delhi on September 13. The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is the chief guest. 

The Hindu businessLine Changemaker Awards are presented by SASTRA University as the Presenting Partner and powered by SBI (State Bank of India). The event is also supported by Associate Partners: LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India), J&K Bank, NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation), Union Bank of India, NMDC (National Mineral Development Corporation), ESSAR, Punjab & Sind Bank, Swelect Energy, and Indian Bank. Casagrand is the Realty Partner, while Fortinet is the Cyber Security Partner. The event is further amplified by NDTV 24x7 as the TV Partner. The Award’s Knowledge Partners are Deloitte & Ashoka, along with Niiti Consulting as the Validation Partner.