Pulling out all stops with her first big-budget movie based on Air Deccan founder, Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga organises a grand song launch with Suriya in aircraft
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; February 20, 2020)

With the success of her independent ventures, producer Guneet Monga showed Bollywood that small can be beautiful. But, in what she considers natural progression, Monga — the champion of indie cinema in India — is steering towards big-budget films. The producer is backing the Tamil movie, Soorarai Pottru, which is based on the life of Air Deccan founder G R Gopinath and features superstar Suriya in the lead.

Interestingly, the makers recently hired an aircraft for the song launch. "We launched our first song mid-air, on an aircraft, three days ago. We took 100 underprivileged children for a ride on a Boeing 737 in Chennai," reveals Monga.

She adds that since the movie traces the life of the pioneer of low-cost aviation in India, large portions of the film have been shot inside real aircraft. Ask her why she chose to back a Tamil movie for her first big-budget project, and Monga says that plans are afoot for the Bollywood remake of the April release. "We procured the rights to tell [Gopinath's] story, developed the material and approached Suriya, who instantly came on board. Tamil and Telugu cinema are as huge as Bollywood. As this film nears release, I would love to make a Hindi version of it."