It was recently announced that the critically acclaimed Tamil film Soorarai Pottru, which featured South star Suriya, will be remade in Hindi. The Tamil movie, which was released in November 2020 on a digital platform, was inspired by the life of Captain G R Gopinath, founder of Air Deccan and pioneer of low-cost aviation in India. Now, BT has learnt that the Madras High Court has directed a stay on the recently announced Hindi remake. An injunction restraining Suriya’s 2D Entertainment from exploiting the Hindi rights of the film based on the book Simply Fly — A Deccan Odyssey authored by Captain G R Gopinath has been issued.

The original film in Tamil was made by Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment and Suriya’s 2D Entertainment. Sikhya Entertainment had approached the Madras High Court against the latter over the rights of the film, including the remake in Hindi. Earlier this month, Abundantia Entertainment, known for backing prominent films like Sherni, Shakuntala Devi, Airlift and Toilet - Ek Prem Katha, had announced that they would be collaborating with 2D Entertainment for the Hindi remake of Soorarai Pottru.

On probing why Sikhya Entertainment approached the Madras High Court, a source informed us, “Sikhya Entertainment and 2D Entertainment had made Soorarai Pottru together, and they were supposed to make the Hindi film together, too. However, apparently, 2D Entertainment selling the rights to Abundantia Entertainment without Sikhya’s consent and not fulfiling obligations under the original agreement between them led to Sikhya making the move.”

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."