Blacklisted by UBI, Kingfisher set to ask calendar models to get own clothes for shoot

Three developments that might occur – wilfully or otherwise – in Planet Mallya after United Bank of India’s decision to declare Kingfisher Airlines, its top men as ‘wilful defaulters’

shantanu

Shantanu Datta | September 1, 2014



His airline in the red, and grounded, for years now, September 1, 2014, has become a red-letter day for Vijay Mallya, the original fisher of the kingfisher and a self-claimed king of good (fishing?) times.

On that day, which happens to come once in history today, Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), Mallya’s flight of fancy that has not taken wings since October 2012, the public sector United Bank of India declared the airlines and Mallya as wilful defaulters.

The Kolkata-headquartered bank’s decision comes days after the Calcutta high court asked Mallya to be present before the bank, which gave KFA, according to reports, around Rs 350 crore. Mallya and three other directors of the airliner – Ravi Nedungadi, Anil Kumar Ganguly and Subash Gupte – played hooky, making the bank board see red and showing the red flag to KFA.

According to PTI, KFA owes in all about Rs 4,022 crore to a group of 17 banks, led by the State Bank of India.

Since that is quite a bit of money, not likely to be earned by way of sales proceeds from the renowned Kingfisher calendars or revenue generated by people deeply, madly, crazily in love with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) IPL cricket team. Here are three developments that might occur from today’s bank notice:

1. With the company “wilfully” short of funds, Kingfisher calendar models might be asked to get their own clothes for the shoot as the new calendar year waits in the wings. A source close to the developments clarified that “thankfully” the new year is not waiting on the wings of a KFA plane, else it might not have taken off. “In that case, we would have had a repeat telecast of 2014,” the source said. So the shoot would be on schedule, clothes or no clothes, the source added, with added assurance.

For the uninitiated few, Kingfisher calendars are another of Mallya’s brainwaves in which models model for different months of the calendar. Just that, the clothes for all 12 months are summerwear: bikini or swimwear, to be precise.

2. Virat Kohli might continue with his bad form for RCB if his pay cheques bounce, in which case he might even play hook, sorry hooky, for a game or three. His girlfriend, who got everyone worked up with her presence with the Indian team during its Test series in England, was among those – alongside English bowlers, the alien pitch conditions, different grounds, the non-Indian air with some swing and nip – blamed by some quarters for the batsman’s purported “distraction”. There are reports that a zillion dissertations were submitted by Indians in India and elsewhere on Earth and Mars after the team lost to England the way the English are known to lose to the Australians 1-3, including two innings defeats.

For the uninitiated few, Kohli was Indian cricket’s brightest star till the aforementioned Test series against England; his girlfriend is an actress best known for enacting bubbly young girls in all moves save perhaps one (in which she played a bubbly young woman); and RCB is best known as Mallya’s dream team that has always had a dream run till the final stages, where the nightmare begins and it loses.

3. Wilful shortage of funds might also see fewer cheerleaders in RCB’s matches in the coming IPL season. According to a source close to the cheerleaders who aren’t that cheerful in signing up with Mallya’s team this coming season, most cheergirls are chary of the team since unpaid KFA staff are likely to take over the stadium in the eventuality that other banks also blacklist the airlines. “Their jeering will flatten our cheering. Their booing will bounce out our yo-yoing (in air),” one cheerleader said.

For the uninitiated few, cheerleaders are the girls who help grab more eyeballs on TV screens during IPL season.

Comments

 

Other News

How social media is reshaping elections

Since Brazil’s return to direct presidential elections in 1985, no candidate who finished second in the first round of polling had ever won the presidency. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, now 81, has just done it. What explains the comeback, and what changed in Brazilian politics to make it possi

Cabinet approves Dearness Allowance, Dearness Relief

The union cabinet chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the release of an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from 01.07.2026 representing an increase of 3% over the existing rates of 6

Cyclone Arnab strikes Andhra as warming oceans amplify storm risks

Cyclone Arnab made landfall along the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts in the early hours of Wednesday as a very severe cyclonic storm, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 125–135 kmph and gusts reaching 150 kmph. Its rapid intensification has raised concerns about how warmer oceans, global warmin

Counting matters but which ones?

The first instinct of public policy is to count. Its harder task is to count what counts. We have become remarkably good at measuring the reach of the welfare state vis-à-vis beneficiaries covered, rupees transferred, houses built, connections installed and services delivered. But some of the most

Inching closer to a trade deal with America

The cooperation between India and the United States goes back quite a time. We need to relegate that era to the backburner when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru visited US in the times of president Dwight Eisenhower and called the American let-off of 10 million dollars in defence aid to Pakistan as a “gun w

Manch vs Musk: Forty people and a foreign billionaire

About forty people walked the roundabout on Teen Murti Marg to the gate of Chanakyapuri police station, a distance you could cover in under a minute, on Friday to protest against Elon Musk’s Starlink. The walk was called by the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch. Nobody joined them on the way, and nobody seeme

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter