Mumbai: Gorur Ramaswami Gopinath, who made flying affordable for middle class Indians by founding low-fare carrier Air Deccan in 2003, is now turning an author.
The Indian unit of UK-based HarperCollins has agreed to publish this silk-farmer-turned-aviator’s revolutions in civil aviation.
Temporarily titled ‘You Can Simplifly‘, executives with HarperCollins Publishers India Ltd said the book will be released by October.
New challenge: A file photo of G.R. Gopinath, founder of low-fare carrier Air Deccan, who is writing the story of his life. Hemant Mishra / Mint
Gopinath, a former Indian Army officer, said he was compelled by his friends and well-wishers to pen his experiences in the making of Air Deccan, which was acquired by the UB Group-run airline Kingfisher Airlines Ltd in mid 2007.
Gopinath, now busy with launching cargo airline Deccan Cargo, is a regular speaker at the Indian Institutes of Management and other business schools.
“Certainly, it is not going to be one of the usual marketing or management mantra books suggesting 10 principles for turnaround. And this will not be a total Deccan story. But this work will be all the more personal, with narrations of my life including childhood to Deccan days,” said Gopinath.
Will the book also tell how Gopinath lost his low-fare flying dream to liquor baron Vijay Mallya?
“I am not holding back anything. This is a story of an adventure and it covers everything,” Gopinath said.
Saugata Mukherjee, chief commissioning editor at HarperCollins Publishers India, said : “The work will be the business memoirs of Capt. Gopinath. It’s a story of his entrepreneurial journey where he began with almost nothing and the making of Deccan without much support.”