Vijay Mallya

In 1986, Mallya married former ‘Air India’ air-hostess Sameera Tyabjee. In 1987, they had a son, Siddharth Mallya. However, the couple divorced a year later. Mallya has claimed that he has been on good terms with his ex-wife even after the divorce.

In 1993, he tied the knot with his childhood friend Rekha, with whom he has two daughters. Rekha had been divorced twice before marrying Vijay. Mallya adopted her daughter, Leila.

Vijay is known to be an extremely religious person. He prays every day and conducts the 42-day ‘Sabarimala’ fast every year. He wears only black clothes during the entire period of the fast. He also happens to be a close friend and follower of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of the ‘Art of Living Foundation.’

Vijay Mallya was born on December 18, 1955, in Kolkata, India, into an affluent business family, to parents Lalitha Ramaiah and Vittal Mallya. His father was then the chairman of the ‘United Breweries Group.’ *Vijay completed his school and college education from Kolkata. Upon finishing high school, he enrolled at the prestigious ‘La Martiniere College’ in Kolkata. His leadership skills were quite apparent from his early days, as he was appointed as the captain of the ‘Hastings House,’ at ‘La Martiniere.’ He later enrolled at the reputed ‘St. Xavier’s College,’ also in Kolkata.

While pursuing his education, he started taking a keen interest in the family businesses and interned there too. Soon, he moved to the US to intern at the US-based chemical company ‘Hoechst AG’ and returned to India sometime later to join his father’s business.

Vittal Mallya passed away in 1983. The same year, at the age of 28, Vijay took over as the chairman of the ‘United Breweries Group.’ The company had initially operated on a smaller level. However, upon Vijay taking charge, it achieved great success and went on to become a conglomerate of more than 60 companies. Its annual turnover too increased significantly.

The core idea behind the success of the company was its focus on alcoholic beverages. Soon, Vijay brought all his major companies under one group and called it the ‘United Breweries Group’ or the ‘UB Group.’ As the company grew more successful, Vijay took over many other companies and brands, namely, ‘Best and Crompton,’ ‘Berger Paints,’ ‘The Asian Age,’ and ‘Cine Blitz.’ All through the 80s and the 90s, Vijay enjoyed great success and fame. He soon became one of the most talked-about businessmen in India.

Toward the late 70s, Mallya launched ‘Kingfisher’ beer, which still remains the highest-selling Indian beer brand, making up more than 50% of the total beer consumed in the country. The beer also gets served in 52 countries around the world and has earned the honor of being the most successful Indian beer abroad.

Meanwhile, ‘United Spirits Ltd.,’ the prime company of the ‘UB Group’ continued its successful run and reached the milestone of having sold 100 million cases. It eventually became the second-largest spirits company in the world, by sheer volume. In 2012, he transferred the managerial control of the company to ‘Diageo’ and retained a minority stake for himself.

In February 2015, Mallya was forced to step down from the post of the chairman of ‘United Spirits’ with a severance cheque of 75 million USD. The payment has been blocked by Indian courts.

Vijay Mallya has been a politically active personality and has been associated with the ‘Akhil Bharata Janata Dal’ for many years, before he joined the ‘Janata Party,’ led by Subramanian Swamy, in 2003. Mallya served as the party president for 7 years until 2010.

In 2002, he contested the elections as an independent candidate from his home state of Karnataka with ample support from the ‘Congress Party’ and the ‘Janata Dal.’ Mallya won the election. In 2010, he switched camps and was supported by the ‘Bharatiya Janata Party’ (BJP), which had him winning once again.

In May 2016, Vijay stepped down from his ‘Rajya Sabha MP’ post, a few days after the accusations of his fraudulent dealings and money laundering surfaced in the media. By then, Mallya had already left the country. He had mentioned in his resignation letter that he was “shocked” at the filing of legal cases against him and that he was not hopeful of getting any justice in India and was thus left with no choice but to quit the nation.