From being born in the small village
of Allena in Srikakulam, to Stanford to being the CEO of OMNICS to
producing Telugu films, Dr Srini Babu has come a long way. Yet he says
that “life is still the same”.
“I come from a middle-class family, my father is a farmer and we had a very modest upbringing,” he says. After his Intermediate from Vizag, Srini did his B.Tech and Masters from the Andhra University. “After almost a year into my post doctorate at AU, I won the Young Scientist award. Physics Nobel Laureate Koichi Tanaka presented it to me in October 2007.”
At that point Srini did not know that this would be the turning point
in his life, “While doing my post doctorate, I realised that there was a
lack of literature and I wanted to bridge that gap,” and that was what
he spoke about at the conference.
After the award ceremony, Srini got a call from the organisers who told him that he could continue his education at Stanford University of Medicine.
“I got the chance to meet some of the top alumni of Stanford; I happened
to meet the CEO of Google, Larry Page. Though I didn’t get to spend
much time with him, nevertheless, it was a great meeting.”
As part of their alumni meets, they would discuss business ideas with
other students. Says Srini, “The atmosphere at Stanford is very
encouraging, if one of us comes up with a business idea, the others give their feedback.”
Ask him about his parents’ reaction to his success, and he says, “My
parents still don’t realise how big all of this is. Even today, after
producing a full-fledged Tollywood movie, Chandi, I’m still the simple
son back home.”
Srini moved back to the city three years ago after his postgraduation
and he says that his foray into Tollywood was all part of a plan,
“Movies are the best way to get across a message. So I chose that
medium,” he says.
'Chandi', starring Priyamani, is about a woman who changes the society
and also brings about a change in the government. “I’ve always believed
in the power of women. A woman can make or break a society and that is
what my first movie deals with,” he says.
“We’ve just finished Chandi and it should be releasing soon. I will be
producing three other projects but all that I can reveal now is that
they are in English and Hindi and Telugu,” he adds.
