 "Who is Captain Gopinath, the inspiring figure Akshay Kumar and Suriya play in 'Sarfira' and 'Soorarai Pottru'?")
‘I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky,’ was a song that may have well suited for Capt. Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar Gopinath, who dared to dream and make Indians fly in the air, literally and metaphorically. He is the fearless man on whose life we see Akshay Kumar and Suriya in ‘Sarfira’ and ‘Soorarai Pottru’.
He was hailed as the father of Indian low-cost airlines who ensured airline tickets were as accessible and feasible as Re 1 to cater to the lowest common denominator. He went on to become the founder of Deccan Airlines. He was born in a poor family in Karnataka’s Haasan district in 1951. He also spent eight years in the army and also fought the Liberation war in 1971-72.
His biography- Simply Fly
He wrote here- “I was forever seeking and forever striving. I lived two lives, like a palimpsest–one imposed over the other–while life in the country intoxicated me and I roamed like a ‘musk deer mad with mirth and drunk on its own perfume’, I was also repeatedly brought back to earth, to try to earn a living, and feed a family and constantly, instinctively unbeknown to myself, found myself in venture after venture.”
“Struggling, falling, rising, falling, rising again and taking off,” this is how he su,,ed up his inspiring life in his book.
On the motto of his airlines
“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,” Gopinath said in one of his interviews.
About Sarifra
Based on real life story of Capt. Gopinath, the founder of India’s first low-cost airline, Air Deccan, Sarfira touches your heart to see the emotional journey of this ex-Indian Air Force pilot who never gave up on his dreams despite all the hurdles that came his way. He and his two other friends left the Indian Air Force to make an airline in which all could fly.
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