Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga on grand song launch with Suriya

The team at the song launch

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 GR Gopinath and features superstar Suriya in the lead.

Guneet Monga

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."

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