Vijay Mallya Cheated Me Of My Dream: Capt Gopinath of Air Deccan

GR Gopinath of Air Deccan says he was a wide-eyed boy from the village at Vijay Mallya’s parties.

Vijay Mallya with Captain GR Gopinath in better times.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter; modified by The Quint)

Captain GR Gopinath, founder of Air Deccan spoke to The Quint about the merger of his low-cost airline with Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines. Looking back, GR Gopinath feels that he would have not let Mallya take control of Air Deccan had he known that the owner Kingfisher Airlines would completely change his business model. GR Gopinath says that Mallya, though a hardworking businessman, could not separate his private life from his professional life.

While saying that his Air Deccan had cut cost and caste barriers in India, Gopinath reminisced about an RK Laxman cartoon featuring the common man that was centred around Air Deccan and it’s low-fare flights. Captain Gopinath’s biography, Simply Fly, has now inspired a mainstream Tamil film titled Soorarai Pottru starring Suriya in the lead. Directed by Sudha Kongara, Soorarai Pottru is scheduled to stream on Amazon Prime Video on 12 November.