Space will be his next stop

Santhosh has travelled to 70 countries

In 13 years, he has filmed 450 episodes of ‘Sancharam’, the popular Malayalam travelogue telecast by a channel, from places as diverse as Nepal and Antarctica.  “I have started from this end of the globe and emerged from the other”, he says pointing to the map sprawled on his table. His yen for adventure got him selected as the first Indian space tourist on board Virgin Galactic's commercial space flights to be launched in a year's time. Santhosh manages his family-owned publication called Labour India based in a remote town called Maringattupilly in Kottayam district. The public limited company brings out study material for schoolchildren, runs schools and conducts teacher training among various activities. Santhosh spoke about his “lonely globetrotting” and imminent space trip to Deccan Herald's R Gopakumar at his office in Maringattupilly.

How are the preparations going on for your space journey?
Quite well. In fact, it has been reported that the test flights have all been successful. I have already trained in zero gravity and everything has been videographed. I have been allowed to carry a video camera and also telecast my preparations as well as the entire flight sequences, which of course were my pre-conditions for undertaking the tour.

Are you aware of the risks involved?
Risk is present everywhere. I have travelled to 70 countries all alone. I simply look at this world map and plan my tour unmindful of the many risks present in an unknown place. I have been caught by police in almost all countries, especially the US, probably because I was filming alone. But when you take this space tour into consideration, many engineers and technicians have been labouring for the last several years to make it foolproof. My confidence is also strengthened by the presence of Virgin Galactic owner Sir Richard Branson himself who will be one of the passengers. The US Federal Aviation Administration which checks the safety of all space missions evaluates all stages of the test flights.

How did you get selected?
Richard Branson is a person who had done different and difficult things like crossing the Pacific Ocean in a balloon for the first time and the Atlantic at the highest speed on a speedboat. He is an adventurous person and was looking for people with an adventurous streak for the space tour. I contacted them when I came to know of it and I had no problem getting selected for the first trip itself.

How did you meet the ticket expenses?
The cost of the trip is $ 200,000 which at that time added up to roughly Rs 77 lakh. I was then looking to set up an office of my company in Kochi and this money would have enabled me to buy some land. I weighed the pros and cons of buying the property and making the trip and decided that the latter would be the better option. I also got attracted by the prospects of filming my experience inside the spacecraft and telecasting it for the first time.

Your globetrotting experiences must've also spurred you to explore space.
That is an important reason. In fact, I should admit that nowadays when I embark on a new country, I don't feel the thrill much and my approach is more businesslike. Of course, strange experiences do excite anyone. Otherwise, people look up to strangers in almost the similar way everywhere. So, space had to be my next stop. In fact, the possibilities thrown up by space exploration by the private companies are mind-boggling. In another 40 years, perhaps even human colonies will be set up on the moon.

Was travelling a self-acquired interest?
I had very conducive circumstances and my family trusted me. Besides, I had a reputation of having landed safely in all the ‘adventures’ I undertook since my college days. I also maintained strict financial discipline since then. So, when I ventured into production of serials or travelogue, they had no problems.

What made you embark on your globe-trotting travelogue?
After completing my PG in journalism from Madurai Kamaraj University, I began producing documentaries, teleserials, telefilms, docu-fiction on returning here. Though I had an interest in travel, I realised that my real passion was in media. I wanted to be a part of media history, at least of Kerala's television history with the programme I introduced. Though I began shooting in 1997, I had to wait for another four years to convince them and get my programme beamed. I do most of the job alone, shooting, editing, and script writing.

How do you fund your travelogue Sancharam.
My main revenue is the programme itself (Sancharam). I am happy to say that I have got back whatever I had spent. Initially I had some problems and had to rely on advertisements. In the last six years, we brought out CDs of my trips to different countries in clusters. This year, we have split it down further for the sake of children and brought out independent CDs of each country costing just Rs 39.

Having travelled so much, the world must've shrunk quite a bit for you.
Very much indeed. When we look from the seaside, we see eternity. Then we think that we are far away from the Gulf or Africa. But when we fly and see the progress of the flight along an arrow on the flight monitor, we see that it's just like what we have seen on the map. I have travelled up close to the North Pole and Antarctica. With the telecommunication revolution, I have also found that there is not much difference being out of home even when you are in poorer countries like Uganda, Sudan or Honduras. In that sense, the earth is quite small indeed and can be covered very fast by suborbital travel.

Where are you going next?
I am planning to go to Brunei.

How is Labour India doing?
The publication was started in 1983 by my father who wanted to help students who were backward in studies. We are a stable company.