00:00Hello and welcome to ETV Bharat. My name is Nisar Dharma. Today we have with us a visionary entrepreneur, a social change maker and someone who has led the journey of entrepreneurship from the scratch. He is the founder of Boland Industries, Mr. Srikant Bola. Welcome, sir.
00:18Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.
00:19Mr. Bola is also the proud recipient of Ramoji Awards of Excellence. And today we will have a word with him and talk to him about his journey. Srikant, if I start with, I was listening to you before, you know, in the Telugu interview as well. You have with you a very, you know, positive vibe and energy around you. How do you maintain this? What is the secret of this energy?
00:42I think the challenges that I have been facing ever since I was born, the discrimination that I have been seeing around me ever since last 33 years is what made my DNA into a positive and a vibrant energy in myself.
01:01Because all the challenges that I have seen so far, I have turned them to my opportunities. Because whenever I face a challenge or whenever I see an opportunity, I get excited. And I think like it's an opportunity for me to prove people wrong.
01:18Because every time I try to do something, people will have a blank face or people doesn't accept it, thinking that I can do it. So that is, in fact, a good thing for me because no one has any expectations.
01:31Like if you go into a meeting, people expect something out of you. But if I go into a same room, people will have a blank face. I don't care. But I will deliver what I'm supposed to do.
01:41That actually helps me to connect well with people and maintain the strongest relationships and bonds with people. That is how I shift the negativity into positivity.
01:53Once people meet me or see me in close corridors, they become my best well wishes. The most negative people or the most unaccepted people will become my best friends in life.
02:06And every relationship in my life begins with a fight or a negative connotation. But that will end up into a big relationship that will be everlasting. So I think that has been my mantra. And that has been the biggest advantage. Because whenever someone says, Shrikanth, you can't do this, I look up to them and says, I can do it.
02:29Shrikanth, you were the first international blind student, you know, to be admitted to MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And it was a historic milestone then. Could you recall some of your experiences at MIT?
02:44I first thing is, I don't recall it as historic feat or an achievement. But I can tell you, it's the new beginning. It's a new era. Because people from India, that too, from people from the globe, who have been blind or challenged, have not dreamt of going to a place, which is at the top.
03:04But I was able to do so for a very simple reason that I didn't have a space to study in India. So if I was not, when I applied to IITs and Bitspilani's coaching institutes, people outright rejected me.
03:21That rejection has actually become a plus point for me to aim something bold and something bigger. When they rejected me and said, you have no space, I rejected them outright and said, get lost, even I don't want you.
03:36And that's how I went on to study at MIT, because that is a place which everybody considered to be the top. So every rejection in my life had actually enabled me to climb one step ahead.
03:49If I would have not faced those rejections at early on, I don't think I would have been sitting with you, talking with you today. So I really consider failure to be the stepping stone to everyone's success.
04:04Unless you see a setback, unless you see a hardship, you cannot achieve anything. Because I feel nothing can be created by sitting in the lap of luxury.
04:17In fact, our brains are hardwired to produce our best efforts only when we face hardship. I face so much of hardship in life that it has become an addiction for me now.
04:27If, you know, my response to challenges had been always is to say, bring it on. And I'm sure the whole world will conspire to help me succeed.
04:38Wonderful. Sir, coming back from MIT and starting Bolant industry, what motivated you to do this?
04:43You know, it was very simple, right? When I went back, when I went to US, I simply had two questions in front of me. Do I have to go back to India or settle down in corporate America?
04:54So, when I looked at those two questions, the whole life came in front of me. The struggles, the setbacks, the challenges, the legal fights.
05:05And I simply thought, I was lucky enough to have right mentors, right support system and right exposure at right age to right things.
05:15But there are millions of people who are living on the fiscal support of donors or on the welfare funds and they don't have this support.
05:24And when I did everything for me, I not only created change for myself, but for the whole community, whether it's cracking science in the intermediate level or being selected to play cricket or chess or anything for that matter.
05:39I think I simply believe if you do something for someone, you will be the first beneficiary. And that became true in my career.
05:47So, I wanted to give this back to the whole community and I want to be the beacon of hope and of people who needs that empathy because I truly don't believe sympathy and I think it doesn't have any space in the society.
06:04And I truly believe empathy and compassion because that is what will help you to show dignified livelihoods and status to people around you.
06:13Compassion is not about donating some money or things to people around you. It's about showing someone to live with dignity and purpose.
06:24And it was my purpose to have been born blind to ensure that millions of people are given that compassion and empathy so that all of them will become productive citizens of this country.
06:35That is what inspired me to come back to India and do something in the social entrepreneurship space.
06:41Yes. That's really inspiring, sir. The biopic on you, in which Rajkumar Rao portrays you, what was your experience around it?
06:51You know, first, I really, I couldn't believe that a movie is being made on me.
06:56Second, I rejected the offer for almost three years, but in the end I couldn't.
07:03But once it was made, once I started receiving heartwarming messages and lot of support and mainly lot of people who says,
07:14till yesterday our lives were in despair, but today we find purpose, we find direction, we find positivity, we found strength.
07:24I think when I heard those kind of comments, that's when I thought to myself, wow, is this really happening?
07:33Am I able to create that inspiration around people, in people around me?
07:39I mean, that again reminded me of my own past life and say, wow, maybe this is what I am born for.
07:47This is why I am living for, to spread that empathy and empowerment around people.
07:52And that's when I remembered my role model who said, you're my hero.
07:56And that's when I remembered, oh, maybe this is why he said this, that I have to be the beacon of hope.
08:03And I have to be the apple of the eye for the whole nation.
08:07You know, when I was born, people said, you don't belong here.
08:11That was my first challenge.
08:13And I overcame it by saying, it's only me who can belong here because I was born without eyesight for sure.
08:21But not without vision.
08:24And it is this vision that will allow us to thrive in life, not the sight.
08:28Because sight is purely restricted to the body.
08:32But vision is purely restricted to mind.
08:35And it is invisible.
08:36None of us can see it.
08:38But we can only embrace it, visualize it and manifest it.
08:42In front of visualization and manifestation, you and I become equal.
08:46Therefore, I always say, your sight has a limit.
08:53But my vision and my foresight doesn't.
08:56That's why I am going to be the hero for the whole world.
09:01And that was an answer I have given 33 years ago.
09:05Today, I am seeing the reality.
09:07That's wonderful, sir.
09:08So, Boland Industries, you know, it is built on the idea of balancing social responsibility with profitability.
09:17How do you strike this balance?
09:19You know, it is a complicated equation.
09:22When I really, when I wanted to, when I thought about what do I want to do, I really thought about this concept of social enterprise.
09:29And, you know, when I pitched this to investors, people laughed at me.
09:34People said, you are an idiot.
09:36You can't do it.
09:38See, you are talking about something in the field of recycling.
09:41It is nothing but kachra.
09:43That's what people said.
09:45And just as you have seen in the movie, there is a dialogue, right?
09:48I mean,
09:48I think this is what people told me.
09:55And I said, yes, but in return, I have demonstrated that I can take this piles and piles of kachra and turn gold out of it.
10:07Because I thought social enterprise concept will definitely work.
10:11But 12 years ago, no one believed it.
10:14But now that's the fashionable word that everybody speaks.
10:19ESG, social enterprise concepts, DEY, diversity, equity and inclusion.
10:24This is what we were talking about in the past.
10:26Nobody believed it.
10:27When I went to corporate and said, boss, practice DEI.
10:30People said, no, this is a fancy concept.
10:34But now it has become their core strength.
10:37And nobody hired people with disabilities.
10:39So I really thought I wanted to do, I wanted to solve this problem in three ways.
10:45I want to create something beautiful that people want to use out of using waste and sustainable materials
10:52while impacting people who are at the margins of the society or people who are underprivileged are challenged.
10:58So to strike these three pillars and the fourth pillar is profitability.
11:04To maintain all these pillars, it was a difficult thing for me to explain to investors.
11:09But in practice, it was very easy to implement.
11:13And I have successfully demonstrated of how it can be implemented.
11:17And that's when everybody started believing in the idea that profits have to go hand in hand with impact.
11:25And we were able to create this impact at multi-level.
11:27Individual impact, where when people with disabilities join Boland, they thrive and the company thrives too.
11:34The economic impact, people who are challenged is about 10% of India, who are not paying taxes.
11:43But now when they draw their money and paycheck, they contribute for the economic prosperity.
11:48The third impact is the environmental impact, where millions and millions of farmers who generate agricultural waste got benefited while protecting the environment.
12:02Otherwise, this waste is getting piled up.
12:04Fourth, our customers and stakeholders who had gotten brilliant and stunning and durable product,
12:12which is free from plastics, microplastics, BPA and other toxic chemicals.
12:16So, we were able to provide comprehensive solution to everyone.
12:23That is why we at Boland says, everybody is counted with us.
12:28And our tagline, we always say Boland where everyone counts.
12:33Every part, every equation is balanced well and taken into control.
12:38And how receptive have been Indian consumers or businesses to your idea or to the products that you create?
12:44Honestly, they were in fact willing because nobody could give them aesthetically appealing hygienic product in the same price before us.
12:57So, when we began, we were able to provide compostable and sales or eco-friendly alternative product for their food packaging or their food for their food serving or food disposal.
13:10So, we were able to give them competitive product.
13:12Say, for example, if you take a plate.
13:14So, when you look at plastic plates versus plates made of top palm leaf, we were able to maintain the price points.
13:23So, people were in fact jumping and excited to change from thermocoal, styrofoam and plastics to eco-friendly alternatives.
13:32Especially in the global markets, we are seeing heavy demand and heavy interest for compostable alternatives and to get rid of plastics.
13:42What are your plans for the next one decade as far as Boland Industries is concerned?
13:47You know, in the last 12 months, we have gone from India to the global.
13:53We have become a global brand now.
13:57And the brand Earth Cleanse, which is under Boland, is a global brand.
14:01It is providing one-stop solution to all consumers like restaurants, commercial establishments, corporates in providing compostable alternatives for their food packaging, food serving and food handling as well as garbage handling.
14:22So, we are a 365 degree solution to all compostable disposable products in the US, Europe and Canadian markets now.
14:31And we are looking forward to very soon start our Middle Eastern and UK operations.
14:35So, for the next two to three years, our endeavor is going to be to become a household name in all these countries.
14:45And of course, after that, to grow and grow and become a global brand in the next 10 years and let the whole professionals run the company.
14:55And I wanted to get into public service and I really am looking for a right opportunity to serve people as the people's representative soon.
15:05Wonderful, sir.
15:07So, people with disabilities, do you think that they have special abilities?
15:10Like a quick yes or no.
15:12Do you think people with disabilities have actually special abilities like yourself?
15:15No, no.
15:16But, it always depends on how you tune your remaining advantages into special abilities.
15:24You are nothing special.
15:26You are not privileged and you are no one.
15:28You are just a common human being who doesn't have, who has one disability or more.
15:35So, one disability means you will be able to visualize and see beyond.
15:40So, that's how you can go ahead and convert your weaknesses into your strengths.
15:46That's wonderful.
15:48By the end, as we conclude, you are the recipient of the Ramoji Award of Excellence.
15:52What does it mean to you and how does it impact your journey?
15:57You know, this is a great honor.
16:00But beyond that, I was provided an opportunity to show my deepest death of gratitude to a hero himself
16:12who had been an example, an icon for entrepreneurs like me.
16:17And his journey inspired all of us.
16:21And today, it is my privilege to pay my respects and humble gratitude to a man who had made unwavering sacrifice
16:30in building an example, not only an example in journalism, but an example for all Telugu entrepreneurs and global entrepreneurs as well.
16:42So, I consider this honor to be a sharp reminder of my purpose and my responsibilities ahead of time.
16:50Wonderful.
16:52Srikant, it was great having you here.
16:54We wish you all the best for your future endeavors.
16:56And thank you for being with us.
16:57Thank you so much.
16:58And I thank Ramoji Group for honoring me with this prestigious award.
17:03And I will continue to do my best and be an example for the whole world.
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