THREAD: #SooraraiPottru

Now that the #SooraraiPottru frenzy in SM is cooling down. Thought of writing about #Captaingopinath who was the inspiration behind the movie. I am writing this after reading his book #SimplyFly some 8-9 back when the movie announcement came. #Suriya

Captain Gopinath was born in the interiors of Karnataka. He was 2nd of 8 children to his parents and his father was a school teacher. However, he wasn't enrolled in school till 5th std and his father taught him at his home. He was a bright student. #SooraraiPottru

However, the exposure was pretty less in those days and when an announcement came for enrolling children for Military school, he thought it was for a military hotel and raised his hand. His principal filled the form and he cleared the entrance examination. #SooraraiPottru

He joined Sainik school at the age of 11. By end of School, he started preparing for NDA exams. He cleared the exams and went on to join the Indian Army. He quit Army after 10 years of service and by the time he was 27, he came back to his home (Note: His father was alive :P )

In his hometown, he wanted to do farming and his family wasn't too supportive of that idea. But he was confident on his idea & asked for his ancestral land from his dad & his brothers for lease. He then tried multiple banks for a Farming loan and was rejected. #SooraraiPottru

Fought with bank managers, barged into their rooms for their red-tapism, and even held their collars during fights with them. He then got some loans from his neighbour and did pretty well in farming. Paid back all loans in the next 3-4 years and had decent financial backing.

He owned a #RoyalEnfield bike that time and the service store was closed suddenly. He thought his neighbourhood had great demand for these bikes and there was no service person or showroom for these.

Straight away went to Chennai and met the Eicher motors team and started a motorcycle dealership with them and named it Malnad mobikes. Later he added other brands too there.

Post this he opened a low cost restaurant (Udupi style) named Yagachi tiffin

This low-cost restaurant helped him very much during his Air Deccan time on how to operate low-cost organization.

He then opened a stockbroking firm named Haasan Investments. This Haasan is one of his major investor (IIRC). So now you know about his financial status :P

By this time he thought he was having too much on his plate. So sold everything and starred an agriculture consulting company. It was named Aspek agro and he had close to 100+ people in his office.

He even ventured into politics.

He joined BJP in early 90's and was appointed as district president and was also in Karnata state council. He even contested an election & lost it. Post this he came out of it and relocated to Bangalore.

He stayed near Army quarters in Bangalore. There he Met Captain Sam who also retired from army and was working as a freelance pilot. It was his idea and he asked Captain Gopinath if they can do something with Helicopters. This is where the idea of Air Deccan started.

Sam left his job (He got a full time job as a chief security somewhere IIRC) and joined Gopinath on his advice. He approached 2 VC's and got them approved. Now he had money and he had to lease helicopters and get a license.

He had to wait in the DGCA office for hours and days together to get the license and that involved huge mental pressure. However, with his sheer determination, he got the license. But there was enough drama post that. #SooraraiPottru

Note that he got the license only for commercial use of helicopters and not for airlines.

3-4 days prior to his launch, the helicopters were about to land in India, the Japanese company from which he got them leased asked for 6 months of deposit to send them.

This was in 90's and the International fund transfer wasn't that easy. He approached RBI and they said as per their rules, the goods need to arrive in India for funds transfer. This was a kind of deadlock. He approached his friend and gave them a LOC (Letter of credit)

post which his helicopters were landed. the final approval came just 20 minutes before the launch of airlines. then Karnataka CM inaugurated the launch of Deccan Aviation.

This was successful and he achieved a good amount of success here.

He got customers who paid 75,000 to 1 lakh for few day trips (Mind it this was in late 90's). Even a Nikah was conducted in air in his chopper for 75k. However, he used to get calls for emergency purposes from middle-class people and he couldn't help them due to cost dynamics.

He got an order from a VIP in Andhra that he needs to travel to Palani immediately. However, there was no landing strip there. His team suggested that there was an unused strip in Dindigul (TN) which was started in the British period. They used it and it was a success.

This is where the idea for #AirDeccan airlines was born. Sam again suggested Captain Gopinath start a low-cost airline. They identified all the airstrips in the interiors of India where the general airlines like Air India or Jet Airways wasn't there.

The Udupi hotel helped him to identify the cost-cutting measures. He wanted to remove layer of Travel agents and get the customers directly to buy the tickets through the internet. This alone saved him 10-12% of costs. He got 5 crores of funding from his investor named Ladhani

No free food on the flight and it will be on a pay per food basis, his air hosters will clean the airlines with additional commissions on the sale and allowances . He asked his wife who had a bakery to get a contract for food in his flight and made additional revenue from there.

The software that his 3rd party clients did would calculate fare depending on how early the customers book it. The money from advance bookings were used by him for his cash flow in running the flight operations. Even if the ticket was bought on the last day it was still less than

bookings are done early via in Jet and Air India.

His Competiton was getting furious about his success. Remember it was the Jet & Air India combo cartel that made Tata-Singapore airlines deal to cancel.

So ventured majorly into small towns that had no major competition initially. By this time, his helicopter company was firmly established and they had diverse portfolio such as Aerial survey, Oil rigs, heli tourism and medical emergency evacuation.

Even though he wasnt getting enough support from the process, he got amazing help from Karnata CM, Aviation minister and Karnataka Governer.

He even painted his flight (Another revenue source) with Sun microsystems which gave him good revenue.

He slowly ramped up the flights and by the end of 6 months from launch, he had 6 aircraft and operated 60 flights a day.

His impeccable operational skills can be taught separately as a class in MBA. Also on his money management and man-management.

He never initially had any connections with connecting flights (Foreign ones) and this ensured there is no delay. His flights almost had 100% occupancy.

Once his passenger count crossed millions, he entered into a contract with Cafe coffee day to handle the onboard catering.

This gave them a foed percentage on sale. he even gave additional conveyance to his pilots and told them to bring lunch from their homes which inturn saved a lot of money. His air hosters did additional work for more conveyance and he cut down on contacts for aircraft cleaners

and separate contractor fees.

Fun fact: The initial inspiration for Low-cost airlines came from Southwest airlines in the USA.

FINALLY, HE SOLD HIS AIRLINES BUSINESS TO "KINGFISHER AIRLINES" AKA VIJAY MALLYA who was mocked in the movie :P He bought Air Deccan for 1000 crores.

So all the silraya sedhara vitta moment lam only in movie :P

So yes, The film was HEAVILY FICTIONALIZED and I loved the movie as a movie.

The parts where I hated the movie was "The Brahmin mocking" in the initial train scene. Another fun fact: I did not want to disclose this, but then doesnt matter.

Gopinath is from the same community which was mocked. I mean if you are taking inspiration from someone why mock their own? I am fine with all the additional elements of Suya mariyadhai kalyanam and all. But to praise those, why mock others?

Sigh. End of thread.

Would highly suggest people to read the book. I missed many points.. Its impossible to write a complete thread on a 600 page book. Ita not even 300 rs in kindle. So do read it if you get time