An Exclusive Interview with Mr. Chandran Rutnam
To launch Aviation Talk and the first pilot project, we were given the privilege to interview none other than Mr. Chandran Rutnam. The President and CEO of Asian Film Locations Services, Ex-Chairman of Lion Air and the Chairman of Asian Aviation Centre in Ratmalana, Sri Lanka.
Mr. Chandran Rutnam is a veteran film producer, art lover and the mastermind of Asian Aviation Centre, with a passion for Aviation he conquered the Aviation Field by providing an institute for young aviators to build their own dreams.
How would you like to introduce yourself?
“Well introduce myself… I am just a guy who had a passion for a few things in life and I exercise my passion. My first love was motion pictures and the second was Aviation and the third I don’t want to mention it… I’m joking. My third one was horses, I love horses, racing horses. So, I was able to accomplish my three passions and I consider myself very lucky as well as happy.”
Why did you have a passion for this Aviation industry?
“When I heard that in the old days there were planes coming landing here every day, so a plane coming through Ratmalana, was an event. When I find out that a plane is coming I used to get into my father’s car, the driver and I used to come down to Ratmalana, and take a look at it and be fascinated. But the real reason later on how I got into Aviation is quite interesting because I was making a movie in Kandy, called ‘Iron Triangle,’ it was a Vietnam based film and we needed four helicopters, so we rented it from the air force and we were shooting in Kandy, and my family was in Colombo, then I noticed that these air force pilots, they bring the plane in the morning and these helicopter pilots bring the helicopter to Kandy, in the morning and then go back at about five o’clock and come back the next day, so I thought why can’t I also go home. Then I started hitching a ride and I used to go to Colombo every day and come back in the morning, hence then I got spoiled; I fell in love because it wasn’t a girl, but I fell in love with the helicopter and I couldn’t get it out of my system.”
“So what did I do? I had a friend of mine in Dallas, Texas., I think and I heard that the factory for ‘Bell Helicopters’ was in that area so I went with him, I went to visit him and I went to the ‘Bell’ factory. And they said, “what are you here for?” I said, “I came here to buy a helicopter,” and then they took me around showed me the helicopters and I asked them how much it was and then of course I almost fell down because I couldn’t even think of that much of money. So that was in my heart, I fell in love with the helicopter.”
“Then later, we started Lion Air and when we were flying Lion Air, we were going to 10 destinations within the island… 10 destinations at that time. One weekend I took my family to Trincomalee China Bay in Sri Lanka, and we had planes but we had no hangar, we had no office, we had nothing. We just kept our spare parts under the table and we were standing in the hot sun and I said, “come on we should get a hangar of some sort,” then I saw a helicopter in front of this hangar. So I said, “whose is that?” and they said it is owned by such and such, so I asked them to find out more about it. When I came back from my trip to China Bay with my family, they told me that this is for sale. Now all I saw was a helicopter, I didn’t know… true story, I didn’t know what was inside here, I had no idea and I dare not go inside. So I said, “it’s for sale, give me the name of the guy who’s selling it,” so I sent my family home and I got in the car and I went straight to meet him and I heard… I did some research, I heard there were some Australians here to buy it and they had quoted ‘X’ million dollars and he wanted a little more, so I thought how do I make this deal fast. We’ll use these figures although they are not the right figures, but let’s say he wanted $60 million dollars and these guys have offered $55 million dollars, so now they’re negotiating. I went and I told them, “you know something this is not worth $60 million dollars, this is worth $65 million dollars.” he looked at me like I was crazy. I asked whether he will sell it to me for $65 million dollars and he agreed right away and we shook hands, made the deal and I bought this.”
“It was called ‘CDE’ and now I had no money, I didn’t have $65 million dollars, so I went to my film office and I told my partner do we have any money, he said, “what are you talking about?” I said, “I want to buy a helicopter” he said that I am crazy and I said, “Yes I know I’m crazy, but do we have any money?” he scraped from all our accounts, he scraped $1 million dollars. I said, “how the hell am I going to pay $65 million dollars.” So this is what I did, my father had always told me if there’s something you really want and there’s only one of a kind you got to take it, for example, you meet a beautiful girl and if you want her you better go for it right. So then I got a cashiers check for that $1 million dollars and I went back to him on the same evening and I gave it to him because these things can go or you know they can fade away. I gave him the million dollars cashiers check, shook hands and then I said, “can you give me a little time to pay?”, he said, “how long do you want?”, I said,”60 days” then he agreed right away. One thing I learned about the Aviation industry, when they want to get out of the industry they want to get out, they want to get out fast I don’t know why… true story, when they want to get out of Aviation I don’t know what it is, they won’t even come near Ratmalana or near an airplane, believe me you check it out and see if people are like that.”
“So anyway then I managed to do some business and raise the money and I paid him $65 million dollars, but here’s the interesting part, I’ve not paid him yet, but as far as he’s concerned he has sold it, he didn’t want to go near this hangar and these guys are calling me and saying, “Sir, there is a hire” I said, “What hire? don’t talk to me I don’t own it yet.” Then one day the owner says, “Chandran, I got to take you over and introduce you to the guys.” I said, “but I haven’t bought it yet.”, but he said, “no no you bought it come here.”. He brought me and introduced me to these guys and lo and behold what did I find here; two helicopters, I thought I only paid for one helicopter, there were two helicopters, there were two Cessna 152 and the Seneca. So I felt I made a good deal, fast forward here I am and then of course we started Lion Air and Lion Air did very well and we had four aircraft, sixteen flights a day until unfortunately our plane was shot down and then I think the government made a big mistake, they banned flying- you don’t necessarily ban flying just because an aircraft was shot down, you make some remedial action you don’t stop the industry. So we suffered a big hit, but since we are passionate about the industry we had over 60 employees, I didn’t let one of them even leave and we kept them even when there was no business but then they became lecturers, we enlarged our academy and we have maintenance, design and also pilot flight training.”
How did you manage your personal life while being in this industry along side with your film career?
“You see when you have these passions you can’t control, you have to go forward. I am very very lucky, I have my wife who is MD (Managing Director) and she is also interested in Aviation and she’s running the entire show now. But earlier on I have five kids, I love making movies you know, I’m the happiest when I’m on the set making a movie but I must tell you one thing; another great feeling I get or satisfaction is when these students graduate from our school, it’s a lovely lovely feeling. I’ll give you one example, I was in Dubai one day and I was flying and somebody from the ground started shouting, “sir sir sir” I look down, there are four guys I don’t know who they are and they said, “Asian Aviation Centre… Asian Aviation Centre.” in Dubai, so you know I felt really good and another good feeling I get is when I’m flying on a big plane and the pilot comes, they find that I’m on the flight and the pilot comes by and says… the guy who’s my life is in his hands, the guy who’s flying the plane, he comes and says, “Sir I started and graduated in your school” and that gives me a great satisfaction. Another big deal for me is when I see my planes flying there with my logo. You know something, you can’t stay in this business without being really passionate.”
What are your plans for the future?
“I am planning on making some movies and the Covid situation was- I can’t say wonderful because we lost too many lives, but the Covid situation gave us a moment to put the brakes on, gave us time to think and I thought in different directions, I had plenty of time to think. One is my next ambition as far as Aviation is to start a regional airline and that is very very important to me, that’s number one. The second as far as film business is concerned I’m having a platform because people are not going to the movies, they’re watching it on their mobile devices, so I’m catering for that it’s called “tonto flicks” coming out in October, it’s going to show Sri Lankan films to the diaspora all over the world, that’s my next plan.”
What would you like to tell the youngsters, the budding aviators?
“Have a dream and go for it, don’t stop because a lot of people stop just before they get there. They work so hard and go right up to the winning post, but they quit just before the winning post, so don’t give up and go for it.”
