Our Bureau
Bengaluru
Vijay Mallya’s recent appearance on Raj Shamani’s podcast, ‘Figuring Out with Raj Shamani’ has become the hot topic of discussion in the media. While conversing with Shamani, Mallya talked about one of his most recognised ventures, the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya candidly talked about the swimsuit calendar launched by Kingfisher in the early 2000s which featured some of the biggest names of the industry.
In the 2000s when Kingfisher Airlines was soaring high, the company decided that they should be launching a bold annual swimsuit calendar. While talking about the calendar he spoke about how his team has managed to land some of the leading actresses in the country at the moment back then in their calendars. Actresses like Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif were part of the Kingfisher Calendar in the early 2000s.
Mallya said, “We chose the right girls, whether it was Deepika Padukone or Katrina Kaif. We had all the heroines and the stars on the calendar at a younger age. We picked the right talent.”
Mallya also spoke about how his team at the time knew which models were going to be right for their brand and raked in the most eyes at them. He said, “Because we chose the right girls. I did it because it was a fantastic marketing tool. Did not bring anything to me personally. But it did wonders to the brand.”
The said calendar was once a big stepping stone for many young and up-coming models. Bollywood star Katrina Kaif, who became a sensation in late 2000s was a part of the Kingfisher Calendar’s launch edition in 2003. Known for her work in ‘Padmavat’ and ‘Bajirao Mastani’, Deepika made her Bollywood debut in 2007 just a year after featuring in the calendar in 2006.
