Is Vijay Mallya the villain that we portray him to be? Here are some facts about this businessman that will make you see him differently. Vijay’s father, Vittal Mallya's demise was sudden and the entire business empire fell on the shoulders of Vijay Mallya who was 28 years old at that time.He turned the UB group into a global brand and owns 55% of the Indian beer market. He targeted Shaw Wallace which was a better and bigger company that owned the Royal Challenge whiskey. In 1991 the liquor laws were relaxed, paving way for Mallya to become the leader of the leading liquor company in India.When he inherited the company, the annual sales were around 2.5 m cases and by 2001 he was selling over 26m cases. After the death of the chairman of Shaw Wallace, he acquired the company and turned the liquor business in his favor.Kingfisher beer became a popular house drink. He became the owner of the Royal Challengers Bangalore cricket team and also sponsored the Force India Formula 1 Grand Prix racing team.With this success, he was called the king of good times. But soon it came crashing down because of Kingfisher Airlines. He launched it in the year 2005, as the five-star hotel in air. Due to the 2008 recessions, the plans of Kingfisher Airlines crumbled. The rise in fuel prices and passenger shrink, made the airline bankrupt in 2012.Vijay Mallya had procured loans from 17 banks including State Bank of India (SBI) and private banks to save his sinking company. But this move backfired for him. Mallya owed 9000 crores to these 17 banks.He was willing to repay the principal amount but wanted the interest rates to be waived off. Amidst this, Mallya became the poster boy of bank default. Many companies like Jet airways owe much more money than kingfisher, Reliance communications owe a debt of 4,50,000 crores, Videocon industrialize owes a debt of 40,000 crores.All these debts have not been paid by the companies and are looking to file for bankruptcy, in doing this, the lenders would not get a single rupee that has been given as a loan. But the ethical businessman that he is, Vijay Mallya has offered to pay the principal amount, unlike others. Kingfisher could have filed for bankruptcy in the year 2012 and didn’t have to go through these legal battles with the banks.Mallya has written several letters to the Prime Minister and shared the same via his twitter profile. All his pleas have been turned down by the government. He had offered to pay the principal amount twice; one was 4000 crores and another was 4400 crores in the year 2016.Mallya stated that the principal amount borrowed was 5200 crores along with the interest of 1200 crores. The government has recovered 600 crores from the sale of pledged assets and 1280 crores have been deposited in Karnataka high court.He even questioned the government for stating that his asset worth is 9600 crores, where certain properties bought in 1906 before the formulation of Kingfisher has been attached. In his letter he has stated that he was wrongfully called a defaulter to have run away with 9600 crores.He was accused of not taking care of his staff, as many went home without pay. But he urged that he cared for his people, as around 66,000 employees were working in the UB group for almost 20-30 years loyally. He even sent an application to the government to pay salaries to his employees, which was again ignored by the UBHL and the government.State bank of India gave a loan of 1500 crores and IDFC gave a sum of 900 crores. Both the banks bought the shares of kingfisher when it was listed in the stock market. But soon the shares of kingfisher fell and it was removed from the stock market, thereby the banks could not recover any money.UBHL and Vijay Mallya have applied to the Karnataka high court to sell assets worth 13,900 crores under judicial supervision. The copy of the same has been attached in his letter. Mallya went to the UK on 2 March 2017 when he was tipped that he was going to be arrested.He was arrested by the Metropolitan Police but got bail for the same. On 20th April 2020 his plea of extradition was rejected by the UK government. SBI had asked the UK government to declare him bankrupt, thereby settling his dues to them.But the UK government rejected the offer stating that Mallya should be given time as his pleas in Karnataka court and the supreme court has not yet been reviewed.

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