Quick Info→
Wife: Bhargavi Gopinath
Hometown: Mysore
Age: 73 Years
Some Lesser Known Facts About G. R. Gopinath
- G. R. Gopinath’s father was a school teacher who believed that schools were a system of discipline and decided to teach him at home. Growing up, he was enrolled in a Kannada medium school in fifth class.
- In 1962, he passed the admission test for Sainik School in Bijapur, where he was prepared for the NDA entrance exams.
- After passing the NDA entrance exam, G. R. Gopinath underwent three years of training at the National Defence Academy in Pune.
- After graduating from the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, Gopinath was selected in the Indian Army and rose to the rank of Captain.
- G. R. Gopinath served in the Indian Army for eight years and fought in the 1971-72 Bangladesh Liberation War.
- During his stint in the Indian Army, he found himself tied down. He took voluntary retirement at the age of 28.
G. R. Gopinath before he quit the Indian army
- After resigning from the army, G. R. Gopinath tried his hand at many businesses. He found success in some ventures and faced failure in others.
- He engaged in activities such as animal husbandry for milk production, poultry farming, silkworm farming, stock brokerage, selling irrigation equipment, and offering agricultural advice.
- He once started Malnad Mobikes (an Enfield dealership) and a hotel in his hometown, Hassan, Karnataka.
- In 1992, G. R. Gopinath moved from Hassan to Bengaluru and met his friend, Captain K. J. Samuel, a freelance pilot, who was planning to set up a commercial helicopter service.
- While waiting for his aviation license in the mid-1990s, G. R. Gopinath asked his wife, Bhargavi Gopinath, to take a short-term baking course. After that, she started a bakery business called ‘Bun World’ in Malleshwaram, Bangalore.
- In 1995, after the Indian government started regulatory reforms to encourage entrepreneurship, he partnered with Samuel to establish Deccan Aviation.
G. R. Gopinath posing with Deccan Aviation’s helicopter service
- In 1997, G. R. Gopinath co-founded Deccan Aviation, a charter helicopter service, with a single-leased helicopter and a small office at Infantry Road, Bangalore.
- Deccan’s helicopters were hired by many politicians and were involved in many rescue missions in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kabul, and South India.
- The company became one of the largest private air charter companies in India and Sri Lanka.
- Deccan Aviation launched India’s first low-cost airline, Air Deccan, in 2003.
- Deccan Aviation went public in May 2006; however, the airline was losing money by then.
- In 2007, the Vijay Mallya-led UB Group purchased a 26% share in Deccan Aviation. At the time of the purchase, Air Deccan provided services to sixty-nine cities across India.
G. R. Gopinath posing with Vijay Mallya
- Vijay Mallya soon merged Air Deccan with Kingfisher Airlines.
- During the merger of Kingfisher with Air Deccan, the Charter services of Deccan Aviation’s unit were handed over to a new company called Deccan Charters Limited.
- Deccan Charters Limited received its Non-Scheduled Air Operator Permit (NSOP) from the DGCA on 10 October 2008.
- The Charter operations continued successfully and expanded in offshore flying for the oil sector.
- He sold most of his stake in the company in 2009.
- In 2009, G. R. Gopinath contested the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate in the Bangalore South constituency but lost.
- In 2009, he founded Deccan 360, a freight flight business.
G. R. Gopinath posing with Deccan 360
- In July 2013, Deccan 360 was ordered to shut down by the Karnataka High Court due to petitions filed by United Aviation Services and Patel Integrated Logistics. Deccan 360 failed to pay the loans of these two companies.
- Apart from being an Army personnel and entrepreneur, G. R. Gopinath is also an author. In 2010, he published the book ‘Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey.’
G. R. Gopinath while launching his book ‘Simply Fly A Deccan Odyssey’
- He used funds from the UB Group deal to start Deccan 360, a cargo airline, in May 2009. Deccan 360 faced a tough cash shortage and closed in 2011.
- In 2011, G. R. Gopinath bought Vijay Mallya’s shares in Deccan Charters and got its full ownership.
- In 2012, he launched daily charter flights in Gujarat under the name Deccan Shuttles. The flights connected Ahmedabad, Surat, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, and Kandla using a nine-seater Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft. The service ended in 2013.
- In 2014, G. R. Gopinath contested the Lok Sabha elections in the Bangalore South constituency on the ticket of the Aam Aadmi Party but lost.
- In April 2017, Deccan Charters bid for and won 34 regional routes in India under the UDAN scheme. The airline started flights in December 2017 between Mumbai and Nashik.
- Air Deccan used 19-seater Beechcraft 1900D turboprop aircraft for short flights. The airline connected Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Shillong to nearby regional towns.
- G. R. Gopinath and his wife often host Indian classical music concerts in their old bungalow in Bangalore.
- In 2017, he released his second book ‘You Cannot Miss This Flight: Essays on Emerging India.’
The cover of the book ‘You Cannot Miss This Flight Essays on Emerging India’
- In 2020, an Indian Tamil-language film “Soorarai Pottru” was inspired by the life of G. R. Gopinath. The story of the film was based on his memoir “Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey.”
The poster of the film ‘Soorarai Pottru’ (2020)
- In July 2024, “Sarfira,” a remake of the film “Soorarai Pottru,” inspired by the life of G. R. Gopinath, was released. The film starred Akshay Kumar and Radhika Madan and showed an ordinary man’s journey of starting a low-cost airline while overcoming financial and societal challenges.
The poster of the film ‘Sarfira’ (2024)
