Vijay Mallya: The liquor baron who wanted to fly

As the dust settles down on Vijay Mallya’s flight to a less-troublesome existence in a London suburb, away from the heat that threatened to engulf him in Bangalore, it is clear that more than anything else it was his flamboyance and flaunting of a lavish lifestyle that did the high-flying NRI industrialist in. 

Be it the bankers, the officials, the taxmen, the media, the cops and his erstwhile and present employees whose hard-earned money he was not paying, all eyes were focused on this once-powerful individual who made it his business to live beyond his means and to show off his aristocratic style. 

Mallya not only flaunted his wealth, but also his love for pretty women, his relish for liquor of which he was a baron and his indulgence in horse racing. In short, his lifestyle was the very antithesis of Indian hypocrisy and he was the very embodiment of what we like to hypocritically call sinfulness.

This is not to say that Mallya was not all pompousness and that he was not to be blamed for his indiscretions, which were legion. The scantily-clad calendar girls whose curves he laid bare reflected his extravagance and love for style. As he boasted in characteristic style, many, including media men, were eating out of his palms.

It was all very well so long as the going was good but typically, as financial troubles began to haunt him, he came to be transformed in media as a harbinger of bad times from a messiah of good times.

Mallya’s airline foray through the launch of Kingfisher airlines spelt the beginning of his doom. He launched the high profile airline with five aircrafts in 2005 but soon his king-sized ambition and ego got the better of him. Amid newspaper headlines and TV bytes which showed Mallya posing with air hostesses with Kingfisher aircraft as the backdrop, Mallya was heralded as India’s version of Richard Branson.

For the rest of 2005 and beyond until March 2012, Kingfisher got one Airbus A-320 every month with the result that the airline had 92 planes flying and orders were pending for over 60 more at his peak.

So intense was his desire to outdo his competitors that his airline served meals that were twice as expensive as those in his main rival airline Jet Airways. When Jet decided to go global, flying to foreign destinations, Mallya wanted Kingfisher to go global too. But there was a provision in government rules that an airline had to complete five years of operation before it could run regular flights overseas.

Mallya decided to take the shortcut in 2007 by buying Air Deccan, run by Captain Gopinath, which had completed five years of operation. The deal was a dream for Deccan and a deadweight for Mallya who spent Rs550 crore for 26 per cent stake, valuing the budget airline at Rs2,200 crore. Seen in comparison with about Rs1,450 crore that Jet paid for the whole of Sahara in an earlier aviation deal, this was a Mallya-style splurge.

Air Deccan was rebranded Kingfisher Red, adding yet another layer to the business model. The right to fly overseas followed the deal and the international operations began with a bang. Passengers were given Merino wool blankets, Salvatore Ferragamo kits, nightsuits to change into, in addition to goodies in food and alcohol. Also available were in-seat massagers, chargers and USB connectors. 

The excesses defied every possible business sense, particularly for a company which had not even started making money.

The author is a senior journalist based in Bengaluru