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Deccan
Aviation
Flying high
 The
Deccan Aviation, India’s largest private sector helicopter charter
company with network bases spanning eight locations across the country,
has a monopoly in its service to the film Industry. With high profile
experts, it has been providing service to our film industry for
the last four years in India. Headquartered in Bangalore on Bellary
Road, Deccan Aviation is cynosure for the cinema industry, Corporate,
Business houses and politicians of the country with leading customers
like the Prime Minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, actor Amitabh
Bachchan, various State Chief Ministers as well as top company executives.
The Deccan Aviation was awarded with the Operator Safety Award for
the year 2000. It consists of ten helicopters of which two are fixed
wing airplanes. Deccan Aviation is flying high especially after
diversification of its business to cater to the needs of cinema
industry. Unfortunately, Deccan Aviation faced the first tragedy
recently when one of its helicopters carrying Parliament speaker
GMC Balayogi crashed near Hyderabad. Lt. Col. Aruna Rao, SM (Retired),
General Manager, Marketing, spoke to Screen in his first ever exclusive
chat with the film media. Excerpts
When
did Deccan Aviation start its business in Bangalore?
It was way back in 1997. Captain Gopinath, the winner of Rolex award
for Drip Irrigation in Sericulture - Innovation award in Ecology,
along with Captain Samuel who has a rich experience in flying, AVM
Satyapal, Airforce Engineer, General Narahari, senior most paratrooper,
all in their 50s, developed the idea with just one helicopter in
Bangalore. It was started as Heli Tourism and later on they felt
that avenues were there for earning more revenue in other services
as well. The second expansion was in the field of Medical evacuation.
In 1998, the need from the film industry across the country, started
pouring in and that’s how we expanded our wings.
 What
are your assets?
Each pilot has an experience of over 4000 hours of flying ranging
from jungles to mountains. We have in-house engineers. The corporate
office in Bangalore with state of art hangar at Jakkr Airport acclaim
in aviation circles both in India and abroad. Perhaps, this is the
only aviation company in India that regularly organises international
audits to bring our operational and maintenance quality standards
at par with the best in the world. Eurasia Air Services (Singapore),
AMS (Singapore) and Avex Aty. Ltd. (Australia) are the auditors
of our company. We have ten branches spanning New Delhi, Mumbai,
Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ranchi etc. We have achieved a
100 per cent safety and reliability record since our inception in
1997.
Coming to providing service to the film industry, how is it feasible?
Helicopter shooting with camera mount is increasing the technical
brilliance.
What, exactly, is camera mount?
A camera of the highest standards is fixed to the helicopter. This
is a costly equipment and helps in the services of aerial shots.
Arri 435, 2C, 16 SR, 16SR2, 16SR3, Sony BVP 7, 70, 90, 550, 570
and Sony Camcorder 700 are the film and TV cameras we possess. Bell
Textron, USA are the manufacturers and helicopter Bell 206 JET Ranger
and Long Ranger accommodates six persons that include the pilot.
How much does an helicopter with the camera mount costs?
The hire period of half a day and flying entitlement of one hour
costs Rs 75,000; full day of two hours of flying entitlement is
Rs 1,50,000. For additional flying for half an hour, the rate is
Rs 30,000. For overnight, the charge is Rs 15,000. Camera side mount
charges are Rs 30,000 per day.
What is the responsibility of a charter company?
The preparation of the helipad, security of the helipad and permission
of competent authority for landing of helicopter at shooting siet.
What are the films that have made use of your services?
We have rendered our services to films made in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada
and Tamil. To name a few, there is Narasimhanaidu, Juvakadu, Farz,
Crocodile II, Aakashaveedhilo, Seema Simham, Anji, Karz, Yeh Dil
Aashiqana, Samarasimha Reddy and Mannathil Muttam Itta. The Thums
Up Commercial advertisement with Chiranjeevi as well as Fiat Palio
with Sachin Tendulkar for trends were shot at the MAC stadium in
Chennai.
What are the other areas where you provide helicopter services?
Off-shore logistics, electronic news gathering, Geo-physical surveys,
aerial reconnaissance, political campaigns, adventure sports, golfind,
fishing trips, heli-skiing, underslung operations and customised
applications are the wide range of applications.
What has the experience been like with film shootings?
Actually the maintenance costs have gone very high. We are also
looking at the insurance part. The amount in case of death while
flying for one person is Rs 7.5 lakhs. Our insurance company is
New India Assurance. The rest of the people in aviation insure on
a person for Rs 5 lakhs.
Haven’t you monopolised this business?
Not at all. Deccan Aviation’s primary operation is aviation.
There are other private charter owners too like the Tatas, Mallaya,
Escorts, Khodays and Kirloskars.
What are the measures taken from the safety point of view?
Today even driving a car or crossing the road is difficult. But
travelling by helicopter is much easier. We have provisions for
emergency landing and some of the helicopters have digital data
recorders. I must say that till the recent crash involving the deaths
of the speaker of Parliament GMC Balayogi and our pilot Menon, we
had 100 percent safety record.
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