Meet Captain GR Gopinath, inspired Akshay Kumar's Sarfira, served in Indian Army, founded India's first low-cost airline

The trailer for Akshay Kumar's upcoming film titled Sarfira was released on Tuesday, June 18. The superstar's performance in the trailer has impressed the audiences and the movie looks like an inspiring and moving drama. Sarfira is based on the life of the entreprenuer Captain GR Gopinath, who founed India's first low-cost airline Air Deccan.

The Akshay Kumar-starrer is the remake of the multiple National Award-winning Tamil film Soorarai Pottru, which was a direct-to-digital release on Amazon Prime Video in 2020. In the Tamil film, Suriya essayed the leading role of Maara, inspired from Gopinath's life. He has co-produced the Hindi remake and will also be seen in a cameo role in Sarfira.

Apart from Akshay Kumar, Sarfira also has Radhikka Madan, Paresh Rawal, Seema Biswas, Anil Charanjeett, and Prakash Belawadi in the leading roles. Sudha Kongara, who helmed Soorarai Pottru, has directed the Hindi remake as well. The film releases in cinemas worldwide on July 12.

Who is Captain GR Gopinath?

Born on November 13, 1951, in a Tamil family in a small village in Karnataka, GR Gopinath cleared the entrance exams of NDA (National Defence Academy), and graduated from the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, after his schooling. He then spent eight years in the Indian Army, fought in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, and earned the commissioned rank of Captain.

Gopinath took early retirement from the Indian Army at the age of 28 and then, tried to set up several businesses such as dairy farmer, hotel owner, bike dealer, and stockbroker untill he found success as an aviation entreprenuer. In 1997, he founded a chartered helicopter services for VIPs named Deccan Aviation. 

But, in his early years, Gopinath had envisioned the dream of making every Indian fly and after tasting success in aviation, he wanted to fulfill his dream. After facing several hurdles and challenges, he finally founded Air Deccan in 2003. Air Deccan was India's first low-cost airline, that offered tickets at half the cost than other airlines. 

Soon, with the influx of more and more customers and impressive services, Gopinath's company acquired a 22% stake in the Indian aviation industry with 350 daily flights to 60 destinations. In 2007, when Air Deccan incurred heavy losses and faced competition, Gopinath sold the company to Vijay Mallya, who merged it with Kingfisher Airlines. In 2011, Captain GR Gopinath published his memoir Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey, which served as the basis of Soorarai Pottru and now Sarfira.

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