Following up a blockbuster like Dhurandhar: The Revenge is no easy feat. As we wondered what Arjun Rampal, who played the antagonist in Aditya Dhar’s action drama, would do next, the actor announced Amazon MX Player’s Billionaire, in late March.

Now, mid-day has dug out more details on the series to be directed by Hansal Mehta and Robbie Grewal. It turns out Rampal will play a powerful business magnate, apparently modelled on the UB Group former head honcho Vijay Mallya, no less.

Think an ambitious man rising to become a prominent businessman, who redefines power, wealth, and style in India. But the very ambition that boosted his growth leads to his downfall. Billionaire, we’ve heard, explores such a journey.

A source revealed, “It’s the first project that Arjun signed after Dhurandhar’s success. It was an immediate yes after he heard the script. While speculation suggests that his character is inspired by multiple personalities, the fictional drama borrows from the life of tycoon Vijay Mallya. Arjun’s character has not been named after any real-life persona, but people will be able to connect the dots after watching the show. The actor will put on weight for the role and sport a beard. A flamboyant and stylish look is what the makers are aiming for.”

Rampal will begin prepping from May, dedicating three months to it before the directors call action in August. The source added, “The character has grey shades; he rewrites the business rules to suit his requirements. Eventually that leads to his downfall. The actor will undergo workshops before entering the world of business and boardroom conflicts.”

In 2020, Netflix released Bad Boy Billionaires: India, an investigative docu-series that focused on the country’s infamous business tycoons, including Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. You’d agree that their meteoric rise in their respective fields, followed by their fraud cases, make for a riveting story for the big screen.

So, it’s not surprising that Karthik K — who has served as associate director to S Shankar on Sivaji (2007) and 2.0 (2018) — is helming a movie focusing on the financial scams of Mallya, Modi and Mehul Choksi, who have been the subjects of extradition efforts by the Indian government.

Titled File No 323, it will mark Karthik’s directorial debut. “Many films have been made on underworld fugitives, but our movies haven’t explored [the real-life stories] of economic fugitives who take loans from Indian banks, escape to foreign climes to live on happily. File No 323 is based on the lives of Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi. The film [depicts] how we’re struggling to bring such economic fugitives back,” he says.

To be made in Hindi and other regional languages, the movie will have an added emphasis on Mallya’s money-laundering and debt scam. Karthik says the narrative will be a dramatised version of events. “We want to be credible, but at the same time, it cannot be preachy. [We have done extensive research], from talking to journalists who followed these cases, to [meeting] people in the Enforcement Directorate.”

He informs that the cast will include stars from Bollywood and south film industry. The big-budget drama — produced by Vakil Khan, Kalol Das, Mihir Mutta and Prateebha Vyas — will kick off in Mumbai on November 20, and will be shot across the UK and parts of Europe.

MX Player has brought Indian audience premium, digital-first content to binge for free, with acclaimed and much-loved web series like Aashram, Queen, Matsya Kaand and High, among others. For its next MX Original Series, the popular streaming platform has now announced an adaptation of the novel, The Vijay Mallya Story, in association with Almighty Motion Picture that has acquired the rights of this book. The web series will trace the journey of the flamboyant entrepreneur Vijay Mallya and is touted to cover a large spectrum of his triumphs and travails.

Krishnamoorthy Giriprakash, the author of the book, says, “The web series based on the former Indian tycoon Dr Vijay Mallya will undoubtedly be a riveting show. Perhaps no other businessperson in India has left such a significant impact on the various stakeholders of his multiple businesses. He was and will continue to be the archetypal anti-hero of the Indian corporate sector. I am delighted to know that the filming of the web series produced by Almighty Motion Picture will begin soon and will be released on India’s largest OTT platform, MX Player.”

The filming of this intriguing new show is scheduled to begin soon.

Download the MX Player app now to stream exciting web series, movies, songs and much more for free.

What does being born into privilege feel like? Does it come at a huge price? Having it all —is that a weight easy to carry? Sidhartha Mallya, son of businessman Vijay Mallya, reflects upon these thoughts and more in an in-depth chat with Bombay Times from the US. The actor, whose recent memoir addresses his mental health journey, says that, “Most of us are quick to make judgments by seeing what’s on the outside.” He also elaborates on the baggage of his surname, his controversial father and more. Excerpts…

I think it’s subjective, right? What do we mean by ‘have it all’? For different people, different things are desirable. Sure, from a materialistic point of view, the outside world might have a general consensus that I had a lot growing up, which I did. But most of us are quick to make judgments by seeing what’s on the outside without having any clue of what might be going on internally.

For many years, I just buried it. I am not old by any stretch of the imagination, I am 34, but the world today is a very different place than it was when I was 10. I went to an all-boys boarding school at the age of 10. Growing up at a time when mental well-being wasn’t prioritized among kids, maybe I was a product of the environment that I was in. These sorts of things like mental health weren’t talked about at all. I probably wasn’t even aware of what I was going through. It was only later in life, when I started working on myself that I realised how much it had affected me.

From the outside, Naomi Osaka is 23 years old, former World No 1 women’s tennis player. She is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion and is one of the highest-paid female athletes. For people watching her from the outside, she has it all. But she proved to everybody that all of that stuff means nothing. Everyone is susceptible to feelings of mental ill-health. It’s not like she is at the end of her career and on the verge of retirement, likewise with regards to Simone Biles. However, their careers are limited compared to other careers because they are athletes. They can’t do gymnastics or play tennis till they are 75. Both were on top of their game. To then have the courage to say that they weren’t in the right frame of mind to compete was admirable. To say that our mental health has to be our priority is mighty courageous and inspiring. They are perfect examples of great role models. You need to change your perspective on what’s weak. At the moment, the belief is that if you act tough, you are tough. If you act like Osaka or Biles, you are “weak”. What takes more courage? To hide or to stand in front of the world and say that I don’t feel okay? I can guarantee you it’s the latter that takes far more strength. Putting up a guard is not strength; that’s weakness.

In India, no one called me Sidhartha (stresses on the tha in the name). I was called Sidharth. I would say it’s Sidhartha, but when I corrected people, they got angry. When I moved to the USA in 2012, diversity wasn’t what it is in the film industry today. Sid was more ethnically ambiguous, and I didn’t want to be typecast, so I opted for that name. But this year I thought, that doesn’t matter... Sidhartha is a beautiful and powerful name. I am going to embrace it and people will learn to pronounce it. Whoever wants to call me Sid, can call me Sid.

I did that appearance because it’s good to have a balanced view. You are going to get enough people to speak against him, so let me say that I am not here to defend anyone, but to say what it feels like. You don’t want anyone you care about to suffer regardless of what they have or have not been accused of. No child wants to see a parent suffer and vice versa. From that point of view, it’s taxing to see someone going through that. As for me... If you don’t like me, judge me for me. You don’t like my book? That’s fine. But don’t dislike me because you link me to someone else. I am trying to do my own stuff now, but you always end up getting labelled and branded. My surname didn’t always have the connotations that it does today.

I just wanted to be honest about the upbringing that I had. Whatever people think, I am who I am. I cannot change that. No matter whose son or daughter you are, everyone can suffer. I decided to come up with a book now because a lot of good conversation is happening around mental health. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we were forced to look inwards. This wouldn’t be the case if we didn’t have to be isolated from the world.

I don’t know, but I am sure it played a part. It must have, right? As I say in the book, what really coincided was me at drama school. We learnt movement, dance and voice. It led me to be in touch with my innermost feelings. It helped me reconnect with the part of me that wasn’t strong because of my upbringing. It was the first time that my walls were lowered, and the vulnerability was coming out. I think it was this rush of emotions hitting me from years, mixed with what you just mentioned about my father. It was a combination of various things. If whatever happened to him had happened 10 years ago, maybe I wouldn’t have felt it that strongly. Not because I was different then, but I was more guarded as an individual. In my later years, the guard was down, so you tend to feel more.

Yes. I think it is a part of being an only child. When you have no siblings, you have to create your own fun. My parents got divorced when I was very young, so there was a lot of instability. I used to find ways to escape it and that’s where the imagination came from. From a very young age, I developed this vivid, wild imagination. I used to love playing characters and messing around. That desire to slip into characters and interact with people has always been in me.

Money, money, money must be funny in a rich man’s world — the song by ABBA reverberates at the back of one’s mind while watching Netflix’s three-part series Bad Boy Billionaires: India. Envisioned as a multi-part outing, the series that has received a nomination in the Best Non-Fiction category at mid-day and Radio City Hitlist OTT Awards, caught the audience’s attention for its impartial storytelling. It explores the greed and fraud that built up and brought down India’s infamous tycoons — Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Subrata Roy. 

In a chat with mid-day, Canadian-Indian filmmaker Dylan Mohan Gray, who helmed the Mallya episode, decodes the thought process that went into creating the series. “I gave Vijay the benefit of doubt. What appealed to me as a storyteller was that I had an erroneous impression of him. [While there was ample news floating in the media], it still had the scope for a surprising story.”

While Gray deems the business tycoon’s decisions questionable and unethical, he also believes that “there are many like him”. “His fugitive life attracted more attention than the facts of the case. Some people thought I was too harsh on him, some feel I was soft, but largely people thought I was fair,” says the director, adding that “real-life stories in India are told with a great deal of bias.”

It took Gray by surprise when people around Mallya weren’t afraid to come on record and call him out. “There was no fear of him trying to alter the narrative to his advantage, which helped bring in an authentic gaze into the story. Vijay was legally advised to not speak. Representing the family, Sidhartha was initially skeptical and unsupportive of the project. It took several rounds of negotiations to convince him that the docuseries was neither a propaganda or a hatched job. We wanted to explore the person,  his decisions and deep dive into authentic facts,” he signs off. 

The fourth episode in Bad Boy Billionaires: India — showcasing B Ramalinga Raju — remains on hold as Netflix is contesting a legal challenge. 

- Bad Boy Billionaires: India has been nominated in the Best Non-Fiction Show category

The other nominees are:  

- Wake N Bake - Rohan Joshi (Amazon Prime Video)

- The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives (Netflix)

- Family Tandoncies - Amit Tandon (Netflix)

- Indian Matchmaking (Netflix)

- Outside In - Vir Das (Netflix)

- Log on to www.hitlistottawards.com to cast your vote.

- You can also vote via SMS. Send HITLIST <space> category name <space> your choice (a/b/c as on the website) to 57575.

- Voting lines close on February 9.

Madhur Bhandarkar's brand of cinema is of course women-centric and reality-based, but it also is gutsy with a big element of 'khulasa' in it. His film Calendar Girls that releases today may have been made on a moderate budget, shot over just 41 days with five newcomers, but it has all the ingredients of a typical Madhur Bhandarkar film, be it shock value, emotion, drama and most important, a big element of revelation. We ask the filmmaker a quick set of questions on why we should see his film today. Excerpts:

What made you make a film on the subject of Calendar Girls?
I felt that Calendar Girls is a subject that has never been told. It happened because one of my office boys while cleaning the office was holding some 4-5 calendars. After flipping through some of the calendars, I wondered where these girls went and what happens to them after they become Calendar Girls? 99% of these girls are not successful and a minority goes on to becoming stars and superstars. As a filmmaker, I have made a number of films based on the glamour world, be it Fashion, Heroine or PAGE 3, and I felt that the story behind these Calendar Girls needed to be told. After one year when the new calendar comes out, the old ones are totally forgotten. I started doing research and got so much material that I decided that I had to make a film on this. I met a lot of Calendar Girls. While some were forthcoming, some were hesitant, some didn't want to talk and some who liked my films felt that I would do justice to this subject. All asked for their identities to never be revealed. And I never will ever reveal any of their identities. While some girls have moved abroad, some have changed their profession. This film talks about another facet of the glamour world and over just two hours and eight minutes, shows the past, present and future of a Calendar Girl through the stories of five girls in the film.

The man who introduced and glamourised the idea of the Calendar Girls was Vijay Mallya. Suhel Seth told us in his interview that Mallya had offered to play himself in the film. Is that true?
I personally know Vijay sir for the last decade. He has always appreciated my movies. Yes that's true, he did tell me that he would have been happy to play himself. But that's because he is an extremely gracious man.

What were the key highlights of your research?
I would like my audience to watch the film and see that, but I could tell you that it has intrigue, a lot of revelations, emotional content and while it will make you laugh too, it will shock you in places and finally leave you with moist eyes.

Your films are based on reality. How much of Calendar Girls is based on truth?
Almost 75% is truth. 25% I had to tweak it and have taken cinematic liberty. I have kept certain people in mind while making the film, who may have had apprehensions knowing that I was making a film on the subject of Calendar Girls. I remember when I was about to start shooting Heroine, I was standing at the traffic signal of Versova when a bookseller who knew me, came to me and said, 'Sir, since you showed our life at traffic signals, our dhanda has come down a lot. Now you are making a film on Bollywood, so I want that just like you exposed our life, you will tell us about your industry too and will not feel scared.' Somewhere that really shook me. He was so right. I took that cue from that guy and while there are always people who may get upset with me, I do make films fearlessly, pushing the envelope in each of my films. I feel when people can read about it, can gossip in corridors, can see it on TV sometimes, why can't they see it as a film? Why wonder whether Madhur Bhandarkar is targeting anyone? A model's life is very different from that of an actress' life. Again, a Page 3 journalist has a very different life than that of a Calendar Girl.

Which world did you find most interesting?
Every world is interesting. Page 3 world was about being 'superficial', the fashion world was all about the 'void' and while Heroine dealt with 'the changing Friday to Friday equations', the world of Calendar Girls is clearly about 'the short-lived life'.

Given that you have always made only heroine-led films, will you ever work with a hero in your life?
I will definitely work with a hero in my life provided I have a subject to make such a film.

Why did you choose to work with new girls for Calendar Girls?
Yes I made a Chandni Bar with a Tabu, but I also made PAGE 3 with a newcomer Konkona Sen Sharma. Yes, I made Corporate with a big star like Bipasha Basu, but I also made Traffic Signal with newcomers Kunal Kemmu and Neetu Chandra. I am a concept-driven filmmaker. I am a storyteller. I sell concepts and take stars only when I need them.

What next?
I want to make a thriller on the underworld. I also want to tell a simple love story without any khulasa.

There are people who judge girls for doing swimsuit rounds and shoots, but the fact is that you need an extremely voluptuous body and tons of confidence to pull that off. Kyra Dutt, a Bengali from Kolkata, is one such. She first featured in the 2013 calendar of Kingfisher and is now playing a Calendar Girl in Madhur Bhandarkar's film titled Calendar Girls. Much like her character of Sharon Pinto in the film, she too came to Mumbai with dreams in her eyes. Having been a real-life Calendar Girl, gave her an edge and a deeper connect with the film. Excerpts from a quick conversation with the real-life Calendar Girl:

What did it mean to become a Calendar Girl?
I was modelling in Mumbai and was at Arjun Khanna's party when Atul Kasbekar walked up to me and asked me to come and audition for the Kingfisher calendar. I had never done a swimsuit shoot before, but was excited as it involved going to exotic locations and shooting. We were in South Africa for two weeks and shot across several cities at different exotic locations. While Mr Vijay Mallya came for the launch, he was never there for the shoot. But he was the person who would select the final pictures that went into the calendar. It's great to be a part of the calendar, as it reaches the who's who of the corporate and social world and people get to see your pictures with your name. I got Madhur's film as a result of that.

Any interesting experience that you can tell us while shooting the calendar.
We were shooting in Kruger in this wildlife resort. We were given these little villas and the main reception was a big villa in the centre. So can you imagine the ranger would need to come and pick you up otherwise the lion may just eat you on the way. There was this nice open shower where I was taking a shower, when I heard a lioness and I thought it would come and attack me, but then I came to know that there was this one lioness in the reserve who had lost a mate and thus had been crying through the night. But it was very creepy and scary. It's really tough being a Calendar Girl. There was this one shot when I am supposed to look all sexy standing below a shower. We were shooting at 4am and it was freezing. The water was ice cold and I was dying, but I had to behave as if it was really hot and I was enjoying my shower. Then there was this one girl amongst us who had a good body but somehow in her head she thought that she had to lose weight. So she went through this dangerous powder medical diet. Atul Kasbekar would always tell us that eat healthy as he felt that swimsuit models need to be voluptuous looking and not skinny. But she would have this sachet with water and would start fainting and her rib cage started showing and she looked gross.

Suhel Seth may feel like he is 21, but in reality, he is 52 years old. He believes in the saying that a man is only as old as the woman he feels. So when we asked him how old was the youngest woman he had been with at the age of 52, he immediately said 22. Having always topped his school and college and beaten everyone and anyone in any debate he has participated in, having acted with Mrinal Sen and having done theatre with Utpal Dutt, he may be anal and arrogant, but he is also brutally honest and warm. He is always prepared and impatient with imperfection, but has all the patience when it comes to his parents.Ahead of his role modelled on tycoon Vijay Mallya in Madhur Bhandarkar's Calendar Girls, he talks to Bombay Times about his proud Kolkata roots, Mallya's big heart and why he considers flirting as intelligent. Excerpts.

Talk about your background?
While I am a Punjabi, I have lived in Calcutta till the age of 28 and everyone says that I am more Bengali than most Bengalis. My dad had a factory of chemicals, which then went kaput due to unions and strikes and the naxalite movement. And that's when I decided that I would never get into business and would become a professional instead. As a professional, you have the right to abuse, you can be squeaky clean and you don't have to take nonsense from an excise inspector who is a jerk. I started Equus Advertising Agency with my brother in 2006. But I then realised that advertising had unintelligent people, brand managers who had no clue, who had never gone to the field but would sit in AC offices and guide the destiny of brands without having the feel of consumer insights. So, I got into high-end consulting and now advise Chairmen and CEOs on branding and marketing. I charge a bomb and have great relationships with my clients and while I have never made clients out of friends, I have always made friends out of clients. I am also a great believer in the family.

Talk about your parents?
I was devastated when I lost my father this year. I used to live with my parents and then they used to live with me, so we have never lived apart. We are not birds that we leave the nest and go away. If I am in town, there is never a meal that I will not have with them. Every day I eat my lunch with my mom. And that's the Calcutta upbringing. I love my parents the most in the world and feel that the only two people who love you unconditionally are your parents and your dogs.

Some people call you obnoxious and arrogant. What are you like in reality?
We want a level of political correctness and conformity and are willing to sacrifice our own self-esteem just to be popular. Churchill said that the only reason you need to be popular is if you have a wife and since I have none, I don't need to be. I am straight, blunt, even rude at times. I can't suffer fools as that is a congenital disease. I am extremely committed to philanthropy and have had all my staff work for me for no less than 23 years.

What does your mother like the most about you?
That I will always be there. But she doesn't like the fact that I am always rude, though not to her ever. She is always worried that someone would kill me, given my brutal honesty. I have never ever had an agenda.

Were you ever married?
I was married from 1989 to 1993 to a lovely person, Sandhya. And the reason we grew apart was that I wanted kids and she didn't want as she was career-driven. So, the only regret I have in life is not having kids.

You are full of warmth. Who do you share it with?
There is a particular concentric circle within me that no one will penetrate. It's a defence mechanism as I don't want to be hurt. I have always believed that money is transactional. I started my life on a motorcycle. But I grew and made everything on my own. Two weeks ago, I boarded a minibus from Taj Bengal in Kolkata to Victoria Station, as I didn't want to go all the way around. For me, the journey is not important, the destination is.

Talk about your role in Madhur Bhandarkar's Calendar Girls?
I like Madhur's films as they are real and talk about issues that we are in denial of all the time. He told me I am doing Calendar Girls and want you to play Vijay Mallya. Vijay Mallya, I have been advising for a long time and he is also a pal of mine. I told Madhur, 'I am doing Calendar Girls, but I will play Suhel Seth.' If I am playing Vijay Mallya, I am playing a parody. I want to do a character based on the person Mallya is, but not play him, which means being an owner of a company that invests in a calendar every year, who uses that calendar for social appeasement and makes a song and dance about it, as it is connected to his brand. It's an interesting character and when you see the film, you will know that it is not Mallya.

What is Vijay Mallya like?
He is one of my dearest friends and is one of the nicest and the most large-hearted human beings you will ever meet. He is a very poor judge of character and his courtiers, and for a long time, he relied on his yes-men, but intrinsically, he is a good human being. I have never stayed on his yacht or taken his hospitality or flown his airline, but whether he goes to jail or not, the courts will decide, but let failure not detract from someone's past of successes. In our country, we become absolutely vicious when someone fails and that I can't understand. By the way, he is so cool that he had actually told Madhur, 'Why the hell didn't you cast me?' He recently met me in London and said, 'I hope you're playing me well?' I said, 'I am not playing you.' Every business is allowed to fail but the emotional quotient we carry in India, is far more regressive. It's very easy to throw stones at a man who is down and out, but difficult to give him the opportunity perhaps to rise like a phoenix. He may or may not. But unlike the US who sees failure as an opportunity to rise again, in India, we see failure as an opportunity to castigate the person further.

You seem to be a loyal person.
Yes, I attach a huge premium to loyalty and also to how well you sleep at night. I believe in Munshi Premchand's story of Ashwathama. There was this priest who had the most-prized stallion in the village. Every day he would ride his horse, everyone would say what a horse and he would feel very good. But at night, he would worry about the horse and how he would feed it. One evening as he was riding his horse, one hunchback beggar asked him for alms. The priest got off the horse to give him money, just when the beggar pushed the priest and stole the horse. So, the priest went back walking to his house and for the first time, slept well. But he woke up in the middle of the night worried. He went back to the beggar's house and said, 'I will gift you this horse publicly in the chowk.' The beggar said, 'I thought you would report it to the police.' He said, 'No. But if I don't do that, people will lose faith in beggars in the future and will not give them anything.' So he gave the horse to him in front of everyone at the chowk to reinstate faith in humanity, went back home and finally slept well. That is also from where we got the famous saying, 'Ghode bechke so raha hai.' I believe that no matter what you do, if you harm someone, you cannot sleep well. I have never ever uttered a lie in my life.

Are you a flirt?
I don't think so and I hope I am not, although flirting is very intelligent and cerebral. It's far more elegant to flirt than to say 'Will you sleep with me?'

Madhur Bhandarkar has known Vijay Mallya close to a decade now and he is a regular invitee to all his parties. The last party Madhur attended was last December on the occasion of Mallya's birthday at Niladri, Mallya's Mumbai residence. Vijay Mallya by this time was aware that Madhur was making a film on Calendar Girls in which Suhel Seth was playing Mallya. We have now learnt that it was at this party that Mallya anxiously asked Madhur about the film. Telling us about it, Madhur said, “Yes, it's true that Vijay asked me about the film and I told him you see for yourself. But he was very cool and gracious. Vijay is in London currently and will be back in a couple of days.“ We will wait to see if Madhur will show his film to friend Vijay Mallya on his return. Incidentally, Mallya's favourite photographer Atul Kasbekar is played by Rohit Roy in the film.

Madhur Bhandarkar is known for making women-oriented films and his next captures the inside world of the life of a 'Calendar Girl'. Vijay Mallya was the man who pioneered the idea of using super sexy girls to make his annual calendar. Interestingly, we found that one of Madhur's 'Calendar Girls' Akanksha Puri has been an air hostess for Kingfisher Airlines and was coincidentally, handpicked by the senior Mallya himself. Excerpts from a conversation with her.

How did you become an air hostess?
I wanted to meet people from different walks of life and coming from Indore, I didn't get that platform earlier. I wanted that exposure, plus I loved travelling. I had never planned to join the aviation sector, but once I had gone to visit my cousins in Chandigarh, where walk-in interviews for Kingfisher Airlines were happening. I also decided to give it a try. Vijay Mallya was there himself along with a panel to interview us. I too was not alone and there were a few girls with me to give the interview. He asked me a number of questions, but what struck me the most about him was how he was a very good observer. I find a lot of similarities between him and Madhur Bhandarkar sir. Mr Mallya, apart from the usual questions, asked me what I liked about fashion, friends and whether I liked to go out, as against talking about just aviation. Much like that, Madhur sir came to know that I was from Indore and he started talking to me about Ujjain and Mahakal as he is a Shiv Bhakt. I too believe a lot in Shiva and Ujjain and coincidentally, I had tied the red and yellow thread from Ujjain at that time. Madhur sir visits Ujjain before each of his releases. I later realised that that was his way of knowing whether I would fit in his role.

Any memories of the time when you were a cabin crew?
I was flying Kingfisher first class and was an Inflight Bartender (IBT). I had been trained to serve the best of wines and liquor. Mr Mallya had created a beautiful lounge with two white couches and four bar stools and the bar was my space, where I would be throughout the flight. I have flown many stars including Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut, Sidhartha Mallya and Deepika Padukone. I have also flown the Kingfisher Calendar girls. They were all tall, skinny girls and were all about glamour. The idea of them shooting at the best international locations with the top photographers would always fascinate me. If we would be flying on a night flight to London, there would be people just sitting at the bar for the whole night. I would not get rest as there was some body or the other always at the bar. There would be a lot of people flirting with you and I would get to hear a lot of inside stories as when people get drunk, they talk a lot of things that they otherwise would not. Sidhartha Mallya and I have flown many times and I remember him to always be a very good boy. He was the only boy who at my bar would have just orange juice and coconut water. He would not drink at all. The female superstars would usually take their beauty sleep and would rest. I have seen a lot of things happen on a night flight, things that happen under the blanket once the lights are shut. But being a crew, we have to keep our mouth shut even when we can see a lot of things.There are things you choose to ignore unless it's a problem for other passengers or if it becomes very obvious. Fortunately, the seats and blankets are very big in the first class.