Dr Reddy has been providing quality healthcare in India since 1983, and there are no signs of him slowing down as the FILA 2022 Lifetime Achievement awardee says, 'health has no holiday'
Dr Prathap Reddy vividly remembers landing behind bars for attending a sabha (political gathering) by Mahatma Gandhi in the pre-Independence Days. “I was in high school and we went to Silver Hall to see Gandhiji that day. After we came out, the police arrested us and took us to jail in batches of 20. My grandfather later told the officer to release us immediately, saying else he’ll beat them up,” he recalls.
Born in the small town of Aragonda, 100 miles away from the erstwhile Madras Presidency, in 1933, Reddy, 89, is the founder-chairman of Apollo Hospitals. In Aragonda—which today has an Apollo Hospital—one could study only up to class three and so, he had to go to the nearest town Chittoor for further studies. “I studied, fooled around and played like a monkey… the one with a cycle who was out and about, and had so much fun,” he says.
(This story appears in the 08 April, 2022 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)