Man who started and lost India’s first low-cost airline: His flight of fancy earned Suriya a National Award but crash-landed for Akshay Kumar

Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar Gopinath, better known as Captain GR Gopinath, was born in the small village of Gorur in Karnataka’s Hassan district. Gopinath excelled academically, earning a place at the prestigious Sainik School in Bijapur and later training at the National Defence Academy to become an officer in the Indian Army. His military career spanned eight years, including service in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, where he rose to the rank of Captain.

The inspiration for Air Deccan struck after reading the story of a Vietnamese orphan girl who flew helicopters to rebuild her country following the Vietnam War. Determined to democratize air travel in India, Gopinath set out to create a low-cost airline. As he wrote in his biography, Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey: “It is not the elite that I consider as my customers. It is the humble cleaning women of my office, the auto-rickshaw driver and other such people that we would like to cater to. We want them to dream that they too can fly, and we want to make that dream happen.”

Building Air Deccan

In 2003, after years of planning and navigating a maze of regulatory approvals, Captain Gopinath finally took to the skies with Air Deccan. Its maiden flight was from Bangalore to Hubli. As they say, it wasn’t just another journey, as, in some sense, it signalled the dawn of affordable air travel for India’s common people. What he also did was sell flight tickets for as little as Rs 1, which was unthinkable, unimaginable. But the path till here was anything but smooth. Industry veterans, banks, and even potential passengers questioned whether a low-cost airline could survive in a country where operating costs were high and bureaucratic hurdles many.

Undeterred, Captain Gopinath threw himself into building the airline from the ground up. He scouted and secured aircraft, fought for landing slots, and assembled a team capable of executing his bold vision. By trimming unnecessary expenses, optimizing flight schedules, and focusing on routes neglected by bigger carriers, Air Deccan made flying possible for thousands who had never boarded a plane before. In fact, Captain Gopinath stayed actively involved, personally engaging with passengers to resolve problems and ensure accountability.

By 2005, the airline had grown its fleet and expanded its network, establishing itself as a revolutionary force in India’s aviation landscape. Two years later, in 2007, Air Deccan merged with Kingfisher Airlines. While the brand eventually faded, the low-cost framework that Gopinath pioneered left a lasting legacy, paving the way for today’s budget friendly airlines like IndiGo and SpiceJet.

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Surya as Captain Gopinath in Soorarai Pottru

The story of Captain Gopinath caught the attention of director Sudha Kongara and Tamil superstar Suriya. So moved was Suriya by the tale that he chose to produce the film himself to maintain creative control over the budget and narrative. Despite delays caused by post-production challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic, Soorarai Pottru was released on Amazon Prime Video on November 12, 2020, coinciding with Diwali. The film received widespread critical acclaim and was selected as one of ten Indian films to compete in the Best Foreign Film category at the 78th Golden Globe Awards. At the 68th National Film Awards, the film won five honours, including Best Feature Film and Best Actor for Suriya

Akshay Kumar Follows Suit in Hindi

The success of Soorarai Pottru led to a Hindi remake, Sarfira, also directed by Sudha Kongara and produced by Suriya and Vikram Malhotra, with Akshay Kumar taking on the lead role. While Akshay’s performance received some critical praise, the film, made on a budget of Rs 80 crore, earned only Rs 24.85 crore at the box office, making it a commercial failure. 

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