VJM's largesse remains unparalleled

BEHIND THE NEWS

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya whose corporate guarantee islikely to be encashed by Hindustan Petroleum on the government's sayso due to rising unpaid jet fuel bills carries on in his ownflamboyant style. Mallya's Kingfisher owes HPCL Rs 602 crore andchange. On March 17, the oil ministry shot off a missive to HPCLasking it to convene a special board meeting to invoke Mallya's Rs 250crore corporate guarantee to recover a part of the airline'soutstanding dues. But that has not deterred Vijay mallya fromcontinuing with new sponsorship deals with IPL.
The much hyped after match parties replete with fashion shows arebeing sponsored by Kingfisher. Mallya has reportedly forked out Rs 12crore for this deal. Which is small change for a man like him, eventhough he owes crores to oil marketing companies. The catch is thatthe home team has to show up at the party and all the liquor that isserved is UB brands. The entire amount goes into the central revenuepool and is shred equally by the eight teams. This is yet anothernovel innovation introduced by Lalit Modi. Top fashion designers hawktheir work while top models scorch the ramp in this heady cocktail ofcricket, B Town and the fashion world.
Giving yet another twist to this operation is the fact that theorganisers are selling a limited number of ‘club lounge’ tickets ateach venue that includes chauffeur-driven pick-up and drop, drinks,dinner, a fashion show and this same late night IPL bash. The samebash then surfaces as IPL Nighjts on MTV where the celeb, glitterratiand swish air kiss one another. These tickets cost the earth - as muchas Rs 40,000. It is believed that actor Arjun Ramphal and his modelwife Meher Jessia are behind the post match party concept and theirfirm has tied up with IPL for this exercise. Designers NanditaMahtani, Ramona Narang, Rocky S, Anamika Khanna, Manish Malhotra et alhave showcased their work at these parties. Actor Vivek Oberoi wasrecently seen at a Kings XI party, as he came out to promote his newTips' film Prince which is releasing on April 9. There will be 55 suchparties at this year's IPL.