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  OUT HOUSE: G.R. Gopinath's bungalow in Bangalore and (below) the beleaguered entrepreneur

It was the sprawling villa that marked his arrival in the stratosphere of the A-listers. Now the same house on Plot No. 32 marks the ignominious plummet of Capt. G.R. Gopinath, the man who introduced low-cost flying to India with the launch of Air Deccan a decade ago. The bungalow bought after Capt. Gopinath sold his by then ailing airlines to his b�te noire Vijay Mallya in 2007, is up for distress sale by his creditors.

Vittal Mallya Road is one of the toniest addresses in Bangalore and houses several uber-rich and luxury labels. Plot No. 32 on V.M. Road, which is spread across 16,191 square feet and houses a colonial-style bungalow, is owned by Capt. Gopinath's wife Bhargavi. The house is believed to have been one of his first purchases after he sold Air Deccan. According to reports, prior to that the Gopinaths lived in an apartment building in the same vicinity.

The bungalow was mortgaged to the SBI for 'securing various credit facilities sanctioned by SBI to Deccan Cargo and Express Logistics Pvt. Ltd.' It may be recalled that DCEL was a company promoted by Capt. Gopinath that, after selling Air Deccan, launched aviation and logistics businesses Deccan 360, Deccan Charters and Deccan Shuttles — all of which ran up huge debts.

The SBI is one of three banks that lent to Capt. Gopinath on collateral and personal guarantees and is reportedly owed over Rs 200 crores. Two other banks, Axis and Syndicate are owed an additional Rs 400-plus crore between them.

Gopinath's troubles with his house became public when a solicitor's public notice advertisement appeared in newspapers on Monday morning, declaring the intention of their clients Raja Menda and Manoj Menda to jointly develop Plot No. 32. It said that Mrs Gopinath had 'represented to our clients that she is the sole and absolute owner of the scheduled property having unrestricted rights' and invited objections within 10 days by anyone disputing the title ownership.

Two days later, the SBI responded with its own public advertisement, cautioning against the transfer or sale of the house as the immoveble property was mortgaged to its Industrial Finance Branch in Bangalore. The notice also said measures had been initiated against DECL, Mrs Gopinath and the immoveable property under SARFAES, 2002, or the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Act. It had already taken possession of the property in 2011 and had issued public notices, the ad said, going on to state that Mrs Gopinath had challenged this twice before the Debt Recoveries Tribunal (DRT) but the challenge was dismissed both times.

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The bank then put up the property for e-auction on June 16 but Mrs Gopinath deposited Rs 10 crores before the DRT and was granted 90 days (beginning June 14) to give the balance Rs 22.98 crore. The SBI notice said any deal for joint development or sale without the consent of SBI would not be valid in law and therefore not binding on the bank.

Another of Gopinath's property — a 9,000 sqft property on Infantry Road in the heart of Bangalore — was also to go under the hammer last month for a reserve price of Rs 28.33 crores.

In a sense, life seems to have come full circle for Gopinath. Time was when a young Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar Gopinath, the son of a primary schoolteacher, used to go barefoot to a local Kannada-medium school in Gorur, a village near Mysore.

He left Gorur at the first chance. He went to the Sainik School in Bijapur and then joined the National Defence Academy, Pune. After he quit the army eight years later, he took to sericulture and then launched India's first heli-charter service in 1995. With Air Deccan, his third venture, he hit the stratosphere — only to be brought low by its financial woes and the eventual selling out to Kingfisher Airlines.

In fact, Capt. Gopinath's aviation woes have closely paralleled Mallya's — both failed with their airlines businesses, ran up huge debts and had their personal homes mortgaged. Both are said to detest each other although neither has ever shied away from meeting and holding interviews together. 'Mallya treated Gopinath with disdain and the latter had a stiff upper lip approach,' says a source.

The grand aviation visions of neither were to come to pass. Mallya morphed the no-frills Deccan Air into the all-frills Kingfisher Airlines, which too went bankrupt. Incidentally, Gopinath has blamed Mallya for 'killing' his airlines.

An insider waves off the criticism that Gopinath's failures stemmed from his being a first generation entrepreneur. 'By that yardstick Mallya shouldn't have failed either. Gopinath went with his gut but his weakness lay in his failure to execute his vision of making the aam aadmi fly or finding the right team to do it for him,' she says. Part of the problem was that schemes like early bird offers and advance ticketing were waylaid by taxes and air turbine fuel (ATF) prices that he failed to foresee.

Not that the ignominy of his house being on the block is a deterrent for Gopinath. A five-year no-compete clause with Kingfisher expired in December last year and Gopinath has a non-scheduled operating permit which will have to be operational for him to apply for an airlines licence.

According to media reports Gopinath has been approached by foreign budget airlines to start a new low-cost airline in India. When contacted, he admits there is a joint venture in the works. 'I have yet to give final shape to the new airline venture which is a JV,' he says in a text message. He adds that there should be more 'meaty' news in the weeks ahead.

However, that too may run into some turbulence. Gopinath's creditors such as the public sector SBI and Syndicate Bank have stoutly objected to a national airline permit being given to him citing his prior unsuccessful ventures and outstanding debt, resulting in loss to the taxpayer.

Experts too warn of caution in the current industry environment. 'The Indian aviation industry currently has significant structural, policy, financial and operational challenges. Arrival of AirAsia and Etihad will make the competition even more cut-throat. Any new airline will have to come up with a strategy and business model that is really practical and resilient. Else this path is strewn with many doomed stories, bringing pain to innocent employees, lenders and vendors,' says Amber Dubey, partner and head-aerospace and defence at global consultancy KPMG.

As of now, it is headwinds all around for Captain Gopinath. However, for the man who knows all about flying, tomorrow is always another day.