The Fallout of the King of Good Times

Vijay Mallya’s rise from fortune to misfortune is possibly one of the most exciting stories in contemporary India. Mallya’s transformation of the United Breweries Group to an empire flecked with glamour and excess earned him a place in history as the over-the-top ‘King of Good Times’. His vision gave life to Kingfisher Airlines in 2005, but it was not a means of transport; it was an extension of Mallya himself, with the aim of being lavish, provocative and embodying Mallya’s character. Airline was a significant part of Mallya's vision. However, oblivious to the excesses, the Mallya’s reportedly unchecked growth with absent management and financial discipline, transformed a revelry into catastrophe. Mallya, who once strolled about boardrooms and political gatherings, saw a drastic change in fortune, with unpaid dues for workers resulting in their monikers being indelibly scrawled as symbols: ‘Willful Defaulter’ and ‘Fugitive Economic Offender’. The purpose of this paper is to step away from considering Mallya’s narrative solely as a story of a tycoon’s fall from grace. Instead, it is an examination of the delicate fusion between political apathy and scarcity of decisive regulation that results in gross arrogance. Vittal Mallya’s pioneering reticence stands against the empty grandeur of Mallya's leadership while outlining the ways in which the UB Group attempts to tackle the misdemeanors of Mallya.