Netflix’s Bad Boy Billionaires: India was released last week. It’s a three-part docuseries with each episode focusing on the rise and downfall of a famous Indian tycoon. It was originally a four-part series but Netflix is still fighting in court over one episode. The streaming company actually was involved in court cases over all 4 episodes with every tycoon fighting to prevent their episode from releasing. Netflix managed to win against the first 3 tycoons so they released the first three episodes first.
Even though, the episodes are about Indian tycoons their connections with Bollywood is not so far behind. As you know, where there’s money Bollywood celebrities are there in tow right behind and by the side of these tycoons.
First Episode: Vijay Mallya
The first episode is about the legendary man, all of you must have heard of him if not know of him because he was always out there. He lived life king-size, as claimed by him and everyone who spoke about him in his episode. Everyone says he’s flamboyant but he’s actually shameless, as you will discover throughout his episode.
The man wanted to be famous and his greed is what got him in trouble. Together with him going down, he took many others with him. Even though, he is a fugitive he is still living life the same way he used to when he was in India.
The episode starts with Vijay outside a court in London surrounded by reporters and his son, Sidhartha Vijay Mallya aka Sid Mallya. Throughout the episode, the background of Vijay and how he became the man he was is shown.
It’s quite interesting to follow his journey and witness his greed and willingness to do anything to satisfy that greed. Then came his shamelessness when he didn’t pay his employees for months but still had the money to celebrate his 60th birthday in such a lavish manner by inviting Enrique Iglesias to perform.
A couple of interesting things about the rise and fall of Vijay Mallya.
He’s a spoiled brat and doesn’t care about anyone else other than himself! Together with his son, they don’t think they did anything wrong. In fact, Sid said it’s all politics! They are both clueless about the thousands of Indians they have conned, especially their Indian employees who have tried their best to keep Kingfisher airlines floating.
What’s interesting was, his employees supported him when the company was going through difficulties because they thought things will get back to normal. The cabin crew even resorted to feeding passengers their own meals as they didn’t have enough food for the passengers since the airline didn’t pay the food bill.
An employee’s wife died by suicide and in her suicide note, she blamed Vijay Mallya for not paying her husband’s salary for more than six months!
All that happened, nothing affected Vijay and the way he lived!
He could have paid back his employees if he wanted to, but he didn’t! He preferred to run away to London and carry on living his life as usual.
One thing for sure, being too ambitious is a problem if you don’t know how to control your greed and stop yourself before it’s too late.
Bollywood celebrities in Vijay Mallya’s episode
Bollywood and Vijay Mallya walked hand-in-hand at one point! In fact, you might remember Deepika Padukone was hired to introduce Sid around in social circles. Sid never had any interest to take over his father’s business but he had aspirations of becoming a Bollywood star or personality. He signed up with KWAN which was also representing Deepika and still does.
The Shetty sisters, Shilpa and Shamita, make several appearances. Shilpa was quite a favorite of Mallya and he even had a statue of her!
Preity Zinta also makes an appearance at an event with Mallya launching something.
Then there’s Shah Rukh Khan who appeared in a picture taken on the field that features both of them playing cricket.
Arnab Goswami makes an appearance yelling or shouting at some point.
Vijay Mallya’s interview with Simi Garewal
In the episode of Bad Boy Billionaires, it is mentioned that Vijay inherited his wealth from his father who was completely different and almost opposite of what Vijay was and is. His father loathed stardom and reportedly paid newspapers to keep his name out of their paper. In this interview with Simi, it seems Vijay wasn’t that close to his dad. The way he is might be because his father was such a strict disciplinarian with him. If his dad was alive, he probably wouldn’t be as flamboyant and such a show-off as he has been living since his dad passed.
For more, just check out this interview hosted by Simi Garewal:
https://youtu.be/wAzcmeIjNsw
There’s so much more that has been long forgotten about Mallya in this episode. About how his Kingfisher airlines publicized his air stewardess as real models and not your usual air hostess.
Mallya’s Kingfisher Calendar launched two of Bollywood’s most famous actresses, Deepika and Katrina. In fact, it was at the launch of this calendar that Salman Khan spotted Katrina’s shot and asked who she was. There were many other ladies like Esha Gupta and Nargis Fakhri, but none became as famous as these two actresses. There was also Yana Gupta who’s featured in the Kingfisher airlines ad in the documentary and was once quite famous as the IT item girl.
Netflix’s Bad Boy Billionaires: India is available now, you can check out all three episodes on the streaming platform.
That’s it for tonight. Feel free to drop in your thoughts if you have seen the first episode.
Ur correct.. i was stunned when sid kept saying its politics n the gov wanted a scapegoat.. what the hell..u looted ppls money , dint bother to pay ur staff.. still he threw lavish parties.. how shameless one cud be..
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