Vijay Mallya credits himself for launching Deepika Padukone, Katrina with Kingfisher Calendar: ‘Picked the right talent'
Ex-businessman Vijay Mallya created a storm on the internet with his first-ever appearance in a podcast. He joined Raj Shamani to talk about his Kingfisher empire, life and more. During the conversation, he also took credit for launching Bollywood actors like Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif during their early days through the popular Kingfisher Calendar.
Talking about how the careers of the calendar girls took off after posing for him, he proudly declared that he picked the right talent.
When asked about the success of the models who rose to fame after appearing in his calendar, Mallya said, "Well, because we chose the right girls. I mean, whether it was Deepika Padukone or Katrina Kaif, we had all the heroines and the stars on the calendar in their younger days.'
When noted that these models featured in the calendar weren't celebrities at the time but later became popular, Mallya remarked, 'We picked well, we picked the right talent.'
Besides Deepika and Katrina, the calendar also featured popular faces like Yana Gupta, Karishma Kothak, Bruna Abdullah, Nargis Fakhri, Esha Gupta, Lisa Hayden, Saiyami Kher, Sobhita Dhulipala, Nora Fatehi, Shubra Aiyappa, and others.
Vijay Mallya fled India in 2016 after being accused in a bank loan default case of over ₹ 9,000 crore.
In the interview, he also said that he might come back to India if he is assured of a fair trial.
When asked about returning to his country, Mallya said, 'If I am assured, Absolutely I will. I will think about it seriously.'
'But you should also be aware that there are other people who the government of India is targeting for extradition from the UK back to India, in whose case they have got judgment from the High Court of Appeal that Indian detention conditions are violative of the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights],' he also added.
"I'm sorry, and therefore they can't be sent back," he also said.
"The plea was basically the prolonged detention without trial, for which we all know there are numerous examples. They just lock you up and throw away the key. That's not justice," he mentioned.
Since 2016, Mallya has been staying in London.
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