Quick Take
- Bollant Industries was founded in 2012 and employs more than 500 people.
- Ratan Tata backed the firm in February 2016.
- The biopic Srikanth, starring Rajkummar Rao, released on May 10, 2024.
Srikanth Bolla was born blind in a poor Andhra Pradesh village, was denied the science stream at school, and now runs Bollant Industries in Hyderabad.
His story reached a wide audience in 2024. A Hindi biopic named Srikanth, with Rajkummar Rao in the lead, released on May 10, 2024, and carried Bolla from business pages into cinemas.
The film also did well commercially. Tushar Hiranandani directed Srikanth, and T-Series produced it. Made on a budget of about Rs 35 crore, the film collected close to Rs 63 crore.
Who Is Srikanth Bolla?
Srikanth Bolla is an Indian industrialist and the founder of Bollant Industries. He was born on July 7, 1991, in Seetharamapuram, a village near Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
Bolla was born blind to farming parents who could not read or write, and money at home was short. His childhood was hard, with no electricity for years. School was a struggle too, because few classrooms could support a blind child.
How Did Srikanth Bolla Reach MIT?
Srikanth Bolla reached MIT after winning a court fight for the right to study science. He scored 98% in his Class X board exams, yet his school then refused him the science stream because he was blind.
Bolla went to court, and after a six-month wait he won. He became the first blind student in Andhra Pradesh to study science.
Coaching institutes for the Indian Institutes of Technology, or IIT, turned him away. So Bolla looked abroad, and applied to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.
He got in, and Srikanth Bolla became the first international blind student at MIT, at its Sloan School of Management. Former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam had earlier mentored him through the Lead India 2020 youth movement.
What Is Bollant Industries, and What Does It Make?
Bollant Industries is a Hyderabad firm that makes eco-friendly disposable packaging and employs many differently-abled workers. Srikanth Bolla is its chairman and chief executive.
He set up Bollant Industries in 2012 with his co-founder Ravi Mantha. The plants turn recycled paper and natural leaves into compostable plates and packaging.
The hiring model is the point. Bollant Industries trains and employs workers who are deaf, blind or otherwise differently-abled, and it sells itself as a place where everyone counts.
Industrialist Ratan Tata backed Bollant Industries in February 2016. The Hindu BusinessLine reported the deal that month, which added a marquee name to the young firm.
How Big Is Bollant Industries?
Bollant Industries employs more than 500 people and runs about five plants across South India. Its exact size is hard to pin down, because it does not publish audited results.
Media profiles differ on the money, and the BBC, in a January 2022 profile, called Bollant a company worth about 48 million pounds. Several Indian outlets have put its yearly turnover near Rs 150 crore.
A widely shared figure of Rs 500 crore also circulates online. That number is an estimate, and it does not come from a published filing, so treat it with care.
The founder’s public profile has grown fast. Forbes named Srikanth Bolla in its 30 Under 30 list, and in 2025 he joined Shark Tank India as a judge.
What this means for you: an inclusive workforce can still scale to 500-plus staff and attract a backer like Ratan Tata.
StartupFeed Insight
The most useful number here is not Rs 500 crore. It is the 500-plus jobs built around disability, not despite it, and no rival can copy that asset fast. Founders in packaging and D2C should watch Bollant Industries for one reason. Impact hiring and steady unit economics can sit inside the same business. The real gap is disclosure, because Bollant still runs on media estimates rather than audited accounts. Srikanth Bolla talks about a Rs 1,000 crore future for the firm. To reach it, expect a formal funding round or an audited revenue figure before the end of 2027.
– Avinash Mishra, Business Correspondent
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