‘I said to myself, it has to be an Indian who breaks the record and I am going to attempt it’

• So what are you trying to defy? Gravity? Age? Belief?

It wasn’t that I was trying to defy anything. I always had a passion for flying and it turned into an obsession. I think the only difference is that passion may have a rationale; obsession doesn’t. I have done things in fixed-wing planes, in small micro-light planes and it was the turn of the balloon this time. It wasn’t that I was trying to prove anything but since Per Lindstrand, whose record I was attempting to break this time, made a statement after the culmination of his flight that no human being would ever break his record, I said to myself: well, it has to be an Indian who does it and I am going to attempt it. There were risks involved but we kept them within manageable levels.

• What was the most scary moment of the flight?

Well, one was the life support system failure, which fortunately worked out. There was a small leakage in my capsule, which wasn’t too bad and I kept going. The second thing, of course, was the failure of the mission itself. We had certain emergency procedures already worked out, but because of the strong winds and the hurry in which they had to let my capsule go, the flight, unfortunately, didn’t meet the criteria we had earlier laid down for it. Lots of systems were switched off — most of them didn’t work. I almost went into the sea soon after takeoff. Most of my burners did not work; my communications failed, except the VHF communication; the satellite systems failed; my cameras failed. Ten minutes after takeoff, the ground people told me the coast guard helicopter had just been launched and it was going to pick me up from the sea. I said to myself: my God, that would be a very dramatic moment. And then it came to me that my year’s effort had gone in vain. I used my landing burner, which worked fortunately, and went up to 5000 ft — I had been descending at 750 ft a minute from 3000 ft — in two minutes. I would have hit the sea. I said, am I going to make even 10,000 ft in this balloon, forget 70,000 ft. Then I said, now, don’t panic, VPS; you’re going to make it, you’re going to do it. By the time I reached 5,000 ft, my fuel system had been pressurised; I started getting some burners working and kept on climbing.

• Was there a moment when you were scared, when you thought you shouldn’t push your luck?

I don’t think so. I was more worried about the success of the mission than any life-threatening situation. I don’t believe I went through any life-threatening situation.

• But you have seen those in your flying life?

Yes. I have done my share of wrongs in flying, prohibited things. We all make mistakes.

• I read somewhere that you once took your plane under a bridge on the Ganga. What happened?

We shouldn’t talk about it! They might hang me for it.

• Or, take your licence away?

Well, I don’t have a licence now, so they can’t take much away. But I really shouldn’t talk about it — I’ll get into very serious trouble!

• Tell us more about how you took to flying. Does it go back to your childhood?

Yes. When I was a kid, I used to often sit at airports and watch planes take off. In those days they had only Dakotas and I’d stand and watch this little thing with a small window up on top where the pilot sat. What used to excite me was how that little guy in that little window could lift that huge bulk. I think it was subconsciously a quest for power — I need that power to lift so much steel off the ground. It became a sort of paranoia for me — I have to do it, I have to be better than the other guy; if everybody can’t do it, I will do it.

• Many of us had the same fascination as children but not quite the resources to.

I don’t think at that time resources were so important because flying in those days was heavily subsided. For my entire training, I paid Rs 10 an hour, which anybody could have paid. I don’t think it was a question of money, it was a question of having it in your blood.

• Going back to the Dakota, it’s one of the most marvellous planes ever designed. I have flown in it with the Indian Air Force in the Northeast. And I have flown in a Dakota whose age was more than the age of both pilots put together and yet they trusted it so much. I believe the plane was almost indestructible except in one way in particular, which was how your trophy plane was destroyed.

Well, my trophy plane was not destroyed — it was very badly damaged by human beings on the ground.

• By a mob?

Yes, by a mob. We live in a terrorist area in Thane, as you know — they destroyed my hospital and nobody was ever convicted.

• What happened? Tell us about it.

Well, there was a Shiv Sena leader who came in with a very serious injury and, like many other people who die in hospital, he died in my hospital. The Shiv Sena came and ransacked the hospital, beat up people and burnt the place down while the police stood outside and just watched.

• This was a charitable hospital?

It was a public trust, yes. In fact, I had been losing money on it. I never made money on it. We tried to build a very good hospital in my mother’s memory. They burned it down totally and nobody came to protect me. The police and the fire brigade stood outside, they refused to come in.

• That’s where you had parked the trophy Dakota?

They broke the engine and everything, but we reconstructed it.

• It was a great plane.

I have a few thousand hours on it. It is a great plane.

• I have know people who’ve had engine failure while they were in a Dakota and yet they were able to glide and land. I have heard the most amazing stories about the Dakota.

Engine failure is not such a big deal; you can land with engines failed even in a Jumbo. There has been more than one instance where a Jumbo has been able to land with even four engines failed — once at Jakarta airport and once in Sydney.

• It takes a good pilot to do that.

Yes, you need a lot of skill to manage it, but the aircraft is capable of doing it. Its area of travel becomes considerably less, but it doesn’t fall like a rock. You have to know its capabilities.

• Well, I’d rather not be on one of those. Mr Singhania, a lot of what we know about your life also comes from your book, An Angel in the Cockpit, where you describe some really hair-raising experiences on your micro-light expedition, your first big world record. Tell us about some of these.

My most dangerous was when I was over the Mediterranean and I had forgotten to change my fuel tanks. My engine coughed; my quick reaction in changing the fuel tanks and re-pumping the engine made it come back to life. If it stopped, there was no way I could have started it mid-flight. So, I got out of there — I didn’t want to land in the Mediterranean and be eaten by sharks. I was pretty sure I’d be able to float on top till I was rescued, but that could have been several hours. I was carrying a small bottle of shark repellent. Later when I landed in Delhi, a reporter asked me how long it would have lasted. I said, well, maybe about 45 minutes. She said, don’t you think, sir, the sharks could have waited for 45 minutes? And I said, I am glad you did not interview me before my flight. That was, in my opinion, from a life-threatening point of view, the most dangerous.

From a landing point of view, I remember how at one airfield in Saudi Arabia, called the Rafah airfield, the wind was so strong across the runway that it was impossible to land. I would have turned the plane over and broken it to pieces. I came down almost at a right angle to the runway. I couldn’t land straight because of the wind.

• You also got shot at once.

That was in Kanpur. I was shot at by a drunk Air Force officer who was firing at a bird. My plane came up behind the trees and he cut my propeller, but fortunately I was about two minutes from touchdown. The bullet I found was from a .303 — a service bullet, civilians can’t have that. It went within a foot of my fuel tank. My whole family was there. Had it hit the fuel tank, there would have been no survivors. And yet no action was taken.

• So was this the closest you have had…

To dying? Yes.

• The angel in the cockpit — that’s your granddaughter, isn’t it? Yet, I believe, you haven’t seen her for a long time.

That’s one of those things in life that happens to all of us.

• Tell us a bit more about it. Obviously she’s your favourite granddaughter. You don’t name your book for somebody otherwise.

Well, she was my first grandchild and, I think, more than being a granddaughter, she became a part of my soul, which she still is, irrespective of what happened. Things happen in life, times change.

• Business families have their complexities.

Every family does. Life is such.

• Looking at your book, I’m very pleasantly surprised by how open you have been. You say there are two kinds of Singhanias — the conscientious businessmen a little short on imagination, and the fun-loving, playboy type.

I don’t remember saying that they are short on imagination; they may be short on things that I have — a burning fire for my definition of fun — people can give it different names. But actually, at the end of the day, you’re really doing it for yourself. I want to do it, I want to be better than the best.

• The other amazing thing is that of your parent group, JK, yours is the only group that has survived. So much else has gone into oblivion or disrepair — there are debts, shareholders who feel they have been vacuum cleaned. Something’s gone drastically wrong with the whole JK group, isn’t it?

You are asking me a very difficult question. It’s a family issue.

• But it’s also a shareholder issue. Do you reflect on it?

I don’t know how to answer. I suppose we all run to the best of our ability and sometimes things go wrong.

• It’s like a typical Indian innings — 185 all out and one batsman gets a hundred.

I think it can happen anywhere, and it would be wrong and unfair of me to point fingers. Am I saying I have never made mistakes in my life in business? Of course I have made mistakes.

• One of them was starting a newspaper, The Indian Post — and you courted danger.

I still don’t believe it was a mistake. There was no danger but the sheer strength of my opponents killed it. If I had the opportunity today, I would start one. I still believe it is a good thing to do. Whether it was a newspaper or a movie, my reason for getting in was the same — it’s a very strong medium of communication.

• You were not looking at profits right away?

I have nothing against profits, I don’t take a defensive stand on profits. I love to make profits. That’s my business. I wanted to do it for profit, yes. It was not a charitable organisation.

• How did your rivals kill it?

Well, I don’t want to name them, but the fact that they took notice of me is itself a compliment. They told all the vendors that if you carry The Indian Post, you will not get any of our publications. They had no choice.

• Why hedge this? It’s the Times Group. They are everybody’s rivals and they are great rivals. They are such a dominant media organisation and so stunningly successful. But I believe you also had trouble with the government of the day.

I never had trouble. That was very wrongly reported.

• You were not armtwisted by Rajiv Gandhi’s people?

No.

• And all these stories about how you put out a list of people against whom nothing was to be carried.

Never, I never did that. Let anybody in my company say that to me. I never did it. I never interfered in editorial freedom, I never told them what to write, what not to write.

• You also had a very free editor, Vinod Mehta.

Yes. Nihal Singh was very honest, down to the core, a very competent person. I had Vinod Mehta. I had Rahul Singh later on. none of them can say with any degree of honesty that Vijaypat ever asked them to either print or refrain from printing against anybody. In fact, I remember some stories that were so strongly against Rajiv Gandhi, and I think they were right in printing what they did, though when I met Rajiv Gandhi I felt that he was a very charming man. Unfortunately, he was not so effective in management because he depended on people, some of whom were maybe not so dependable. We all go wrong. I mean, don’t we do that in life?

• So you were not so badly burned by your newspaper experience that you won’t think of doing it again?

As I just said, I’d be happy to do it today again, if I could put the right team together. Unfortunately, the newspaper field today has got very, very crowded.

• Less risky than going 68,000 ft in a balloon?

I don’t think there was a risk involved. A newspaper should be profit-motivated. It should communicate to people the happenings of the day and with as little bias as possible.

• Mr Singhania, tell us about the other remarkable thing. You’re flying, you’re getting into newspapers, you’re producing a film — all that is one part of your life. The other is Raymond. What’s the Raymond story? How did you come up with the idea of “the complete man”? It’s one of the longest lasting taglines in Indian business.

Well, when it was coined, I don’t think it had the kind of deep meaning that it has today in my mind. It was really designed to show that clothes form part of the man and it was like a cliche used to show that you become a complete man if you wear Raymond’s clothing. But in time it became much more philosophical to me, that the complete man is one who is an ideal person in society, who does what is expected of him, who is the right kind of guy. Of course, there are lots of wrong guys who wear Raymond’s suiting. But the complete man became much more the kind of person I’d like to believe in as the ideal person. And the complete man will probably become the complete family very soon because we have started getting into ladies’ wear and hopefully, in time to come we will get into children’s wear.

• Maybe the idea of the complete man also worked because it had such a good mascot. Every time you break a new record, we find your face on the complete man hoardings.

Well, I like to believe that Raymond is the image of the complete man. I would like to believe that Raymond conducts his business in as ideal a manner as I would like to; I’d like to believe his products are as respected as I would want them to be; and I’d like to believe that, in totality, Raymond is better than the best. Now, I may be arrogant in saying that, but that’s my belief.