Rarely does one come across the other side of Vijay Mallya, known for his flamboyance and addressed as the liquor baron. However, now Mallya is seeking a change in that tag.
The UB group's alcoholic beverages division is the largest beer and spirits maker in the country.
About his beer brand Kingfisher, Mallya said, "When I took over as chairman, Kingfisher was the fourth beer brand, while the top slot was occupied by Golden Eagle. I build the Kingfisher brand and it is the number one brand in the country now."
Kingfisher has a market share of 28 per cent and the UB has a share of 40 per cent in the Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) beer market.
Similarly, Mallya was the brand manager for Bagpiper, a leading brand with sales of 6 million cases in the regular whisky market.
Noting that liquor companies having to resort to surrogate advertising was a bad trend, Mallya said: "As far as the Kingfisher mineral water ads are concerned, we have a legitimate brand as we sell in excess of 2 million bottles of the mineral water. What others are doing by advertising apple juice is an extremely vulgar manner of surrogate advertising."
He added that he had taken up the issue with Union minister for information and broadcasting Sushma Swaraj.
Mallya said, "When I pointed out to madam that if the liquor industry was allowed to advertise it was responsible enough to ensure that responsible drinking was encouraged among consumers of alcohol. To this madam retorted that if alcohol companies were permitted to advertise their products directly, even the far flung villagers in India would be tempted to drink alcohol," he said.
Mallya noted that another perversion that existed in government policy is the imposition of a higher tax regime on beer (with less than five per cent alcohol content) than hard liquor (which has up to 40 per cent alcohol content).
"This results in a higher price for a bottle of beer and today's youngsters therefore prefer to purchase 180 ml of hard liquor which they consume with their preferred soft drink instead of beer. In simple words, the youngsters are encouraged to drink hard liquor due to the existing pricing mechanism," Mallya said.
Mallya, who has donned the political robe of a parliamentarian, emphasised that he was dressed in linen and driven in a white Mercedes-Benz since becoming one.
"I do not want to be a hypocrite, by wearing khadi and travelling in a white Ambassador," he said.
Mallya, known for his late arrivals, said, "I can't help to be late as even twenty four hours is too less for me."
And he does not like to carry forward his work to the next day. Mallya is planning to come out with his biography named Speed, expected to be out next year.