Ravi Mantha

Mantha was born and raised in Hyderabad, India where he attended The Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur.^[3] Mantha earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Puget Sound in 1994.^[4][1] He also earned the CFA (chartered financial analyst) charter from the CFA Institute (previously known as AIMR), in 1997.

In 2001, Mantha began working at Fidelity Investments as a portfolio manager for a fund worth around $1 billion. Mantha continued working at Fidelity till 2011, and by then the fund had grown to $34 billion.^[1][5]

In 2012, Mantha met Srikanth Bolla in Hyderabad after being introduced by a common friend. Together, Bolla and Mantha would found Bollant Industries, an organization that employs uneducated and disabled employees to manufacture eco-friendly packaging solutions.^[6] In 2016, Bollant received backing from billionaire Ratan Tata.^[7] As of 2022, Bollant Industries was worth an estimated £48 million.^[8]

In 2013, Mantha published his first book, All About Bacteria with HarperCollins.^[9][10]

In 2014, Mantha was a political advisor to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Mantha assisted Narendra Modi with his 2014 election strategy.^[11] The same year, Mantha published A Journey: Poems by Narendra Modi, translating Modi's poetry from Gujarati to English.^[12][13]

In 2015, Mantha published his third book, The Baby Elephant Diet: A Modern Indian Guide to Eating Right.^[14][15]

Mantha and his wife Kavitha own and operate the Baby Elephant Farm, a 17-acre food forest in Shankarpally, Telangna along with Sage Sustainable Living, a store selling raw produce from their farm and Sage Farm Cafe, an organic restaurant in Hyderabad.^[2][16][17]

In 2022, a biopic film Srikanth, featuring Rajkummar Rao in the lead role of Srikanth Bolla was announced with Sharad Kelkar playing the supporting role of Ravi Mantha.^[18][19] The film released on 10 May 2024 with Kelkar's performance as Mantha being generally praised.^{[20][21][22][23]}