Sir Can you please tell us something about your childhood?
I was born into an agricultural family in Nellore. Ours is a joint family. I have been taken out of my mother and isolated from my family for higher studies. My uncle put me into a school under the guidance of my grandmother. It was a tight fisted disciple like a community. In those days there were no buses, autos. I had to walk a lot to go to the school. There was even no bicycle to go to the school. I use to wash my clothes myself. Even if I want to go to a movie I couldn’t go. I need to justify what the movie is, what is good about that movie, what is the production of the movie. It was a very restricted life. I have studied engineering in Kakinada and completed my PG in Germany. I went to USA and worked there for 7 months and came back joined DLRL, APIDC. I was one of the co-promoter of SABNIF HBL. I left the company in 1992 and started Shantha Biotechnics.
What is the secret of your success?
Who told that I am a successful person? In fact it is not the money we get,
the name we get and the proprietary impact we have created, everyone keeps assessing
that we are successful. My simplest way of definition of success is, you can
achieve a goal what you have set. Every Individual keeps some goals. If you
go by that parameter mine is total failure.
Banks think that I am successful because they have been paid in time, Shareholders
feel that I am successful because they’re getting high dividends, Newspapers
write very great about SHANTHA because we are getting so many awards. In their
perspective we are successful. Nobody bothers to ask about my goal. The goal
I have set in 1992 that every child in India will get an opportunity to have
the vaccination. To do that the goal has to be incorporated in the mind.
We used to import the Hepatitis-B N1, which is very costly (36.2 Dollars). After
5 years we were able to provide this vaccine for just ½ Dollars. Still
in USA it costs 70$. We have put a lot of pressure on the government to include
the vaccine in National Immunization. Now we are exporting 87% of Hepatitis-B
vaccines. Pity is only 15% of the vaccines are being utilized in India. Papers
write very great about Shantha. I can’t argue with the politicians. I
have been watching them as a spectator.
What inspired you to start Shantha Biotechnics?
It is not the inspiration; it is the provocation by which I have started Shantha Bio. In western society they have been using Hepatitis-B vaccine since 20years. They were making very ridiculous comments against Indians like Indians can’t produce this vaccination, they don’t understand the technology, they are not committed, and they have no knowledge. I was provoked by these comments and thought why can’t we do it. Then I started this company in 1992. Now we are exporting 87% of our production to more than 50 countries. It is a pity that as the medicine is aimed to make it available to Indian poor people but the western countries are getting the advantage of the importing of our 87% production from us.
How do you manage time?
I wake up at 4:15AM, and I go for a walk. After that I go to my plant and spend
sometime there and then go to the city office. In the evening, I attend a meeting
and go for some picture. I listen to music a lot. Apart from that I published
a magazine called Hasyam, every year we used to produce 7 or 8 magazines. If
you listen u to good music u will get relieved from stress. I have a good collection
of music. In fact I have learnt Veena for three years and discontinued due to
various reasons. My daughter learnt Veena. Her name is Sangitha. I like carnatic
music and good melody songs in Telugu. Whenever I want to send greetings to
my close friends, I don’t send them greetings. I believe that life of
a greeting card is very less. The moment you read the greeting card its life
is gone. That is why I send good songs through a CD. They cannot throw the CD
like a greeting card. They at least listen to the songs once. Whenever they
listen to that they remember me.
We have a big R&D unit at Medchal.
Do you mean your factory?
I don’t call it a factory; in fact I call it as a temple. It was built
out of my heart. The uniqueness of the plant/temple is, it has to produce the
life saving drugs to the generation at an affordable cost. Our motto is to provide
this drug for a noble cause. Today we’re able to provide the vaccine at
an affordable cost of 50ps. I never aimed at getting profits out this organization.
Let me tell you one thing:
If you keep your thinking noble, everything will come automatically, every day
we get an award, every day we’re talked about, but our lakshya (goal)
was to provide this drug for a noble cause, I feel that awards what we’ve
got, the money we earn are only byproducts of this noble cause. If you look
for profit you will lose your lakshya. If you see Shantha is a very tiny company
of 65Crore turnover p.a. . But if you see Aurobindo, it is a 3000Crore company
and Dr Reddys Laboratories is a 2500Crore company. But the reason Shantha Bio
is talked about is the noble cause, which we worship for. The message is don’t
aim at elementary currency; you can’t buy everything with money. The happiness
is gone the moment you have what you wanted, e.g., If you wanted a mobile, you
will be excited and happy till you buy it, once you buy and it is in your pocket
you will no more be happy. The concept of a noble cause for the benefit of the
people will give a lot of satisfaction.
What is the most satisfactory event in your life?
We have gone through various R&D’s to produce the vaccine. Then the
process goes like this: once we launch our product into the market, doctors
will present the drug and people have to purchase that medicine. What we have
done is, instead of directly launching the product in the market, we used to
conduct medical camps on Sundays and holidays. Thousands of people came and
stood in the queue. I could see 30000-40000 people along with their children,
to get vaccinated. I could see their happiness in their faces when they came
and asked me “naa biddaku mandu ivvandi (Please Vaccinate my child)”.
I felt so happy by seeing their happiness in getting their child vaccinated
by Hepatitis-B vaccine.
By the way do you all understand Telugu? Why are talking in English then? We
will continue in Telugu. I thought there are people in your group who don’t
understand Telugu. We all should respect our mother tongue Telugu. I am not
saying not to speak in English; you can speak wherever it is required. But give
utmost respect to your mother tongue. Since now a days there is lot of globalization,
it is required that one should speak in English. However we should not forget
our traditions and customs. We all should protect our tradition.
You have gone through a lot of struggles to reach this position. Can you share some of your experiences?
Everyone will have struggles in life. There is no human being who is not gone
through struggles, e.g., when you have joined in college you might have gone
through lot of struggles in the initial stages. If you want to go to a movie,
you will see that it somehow it happens by convincing your parents, organizing
for tickets and you see the way to fulfill your desire to see the movie. It
is nothing but Sankalpam (Determination). If you have strong belief, you can
do it. Another Example is when you want to fly a kite you need to keep the kite
against the wind otherwise it can’t fly. Everyone should have difficulties
in life. With difficulties only you can grow. I am not saying to have difficulties,
which cannot be resolved. Where there is a challenge, there is growth.
I have seen a picture. One person is climbing the mountain and another is getting
down the mountain. It is very difficult for the one going up but he is going
UP, but it is easy for the person going down but he is going DOWN.
When we started Shantha Bio there were many challenges. We have not got funds.
No bank is willing to provide loans, as they have not learnt of this Biotechnology
in India. They had a doubt: whether these people can succeed, why should we
need a hepatitis-B vaccine etc. In spite of all these challenges we could able
to start and Shantha Bio is one of the best pharmaceutical company. Meanwhile
since we’re are producing the life saving drug Hepatitis-B, one of the
USA company has started a negative advertisement saying that Hepatitis-B produced
by us is not good and asked people to save their children from this vaccine.
Then Indian doctors called me asked ‘what is this?’ Then I challenged
that company to have a comparison of Hepatitis-B drug of Shantha Bio and that
company. After so many tests Shantha Bio’s drug is found to be better
than US Company’s drug. And also it is published in all international
magazines that Shantha Bio’s drug is 16 times better than any other hepatitis-B
vaccine in the world. With that, now more than 50 countries know about our drug
and are importing the drug.
Did you hear the song in the movie ‘Nenunnanu’? It is a very inspirational song, you all should listen to that song. Do you want to me to play that song for you?
Yes!
What is your advice to the younger generation?
I am not a saint to give advices; I am a very small person. When Gautam Buddha who sat under Bodhi Vriksha for 1000 years and gave a simple advice, who am I to give advice to you. But one thing I can certainly tell you is, now a days youth is more exposed. In our days there was no TV, the idiot box. Consumerization has gone up. You can have whatever you want, like Park-Avenue, Lee, Arrow shirts, these were not available in our days. Because of lack of Consumerization and advancement of technology, we were not exposed to the vulnerabilities rather we have been protected. Now due to advancement in Consumerization and technology, youth is more exposed to a lot of vulnerabilities. You need to control yourself to protect yourself from vulnerabilities.
Do you think that it is an advantage?
It is not an advantage. You have a lot of pressure on you to resist all these vulnerabilities. Otherwise you are likely to lose yourself. In our days there were only few option such as Engineering, Medicine, Law. These days, you have many options. Today, in every six months your priorities are changing and keep changing every three months. You stand in cross roads and don’t know which direction to go. Today the environment is not congenial for your generation. My sympathy and empathy are with you.
How did you feel when you received the Padma Bhushan award?
There is no feeling for me. Why means, I never worked for these awards. Awards come and go but your direction should not change. Some people will say that since I have received the award my responsibilities increased. Does it mean that you feel responsible only when you have received the award? I don’t have any belief on these since the government has to give award they selected me. I don’t know why they selected me. There are many people who have done better to the nation. I don’t know why they haven’t received.