The founder and CEO of Bollant Industries wrote his own destiny after his parents were advised to get rid of him because he was visually impaired at birth. The Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 alumnus gives rare insights into his journey of fighting economic and sociological barriers, and his biopic, Srikanth, starring actor Rajkummar Rao
When Srikanth Bolla was born in July 1991, his farmer parents, who barely earned Rs20,000 annually, thought they had won a million-dollar lottery. “I looked like gold, I looked pretty,” he says. It was only when they bathed him for the first time and held him under a kerosene lantern at their modest home in Seetharamapuram village in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, did they realise that his eyes were shut. When they noticed that their first child wasn’t opening them at all, their worst fears came true. “They thought I wouldn’t be able to see and that’s what it turned out to be. Their entire world shattered in front of them,” explains Bolla.