The former owner of RCB, Kingfisher Airlines, and the Force India F1 team, Vijay Mallya, recently spent over four hours on popular YouTuber and entrepreneur Raj Shamani’s podcast. Fugitive Vijay Mallya fled India in March 2016 for allegations of loan defaults and financial irregularities.
When he made a brief appearance, certainly many people wanted to hear his account. The businessman has been charged in a bank loan default case involving over Rs 9,000 crore.
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Vijay Mallya’s appearance in Shamani’s podcast garnered huge attention, with his YouTube video gaining millions of views
The 69-year-old liquor baron had a lengthy conversation with the YouTuber that lasted 4 hours and 18 minutes. The video garnered over 22 million views. In the podcast, Mallya opened up about selecting a young Virat Kohli for Royal Challengers Bangalore, to giving “Oo La La La Le O” jingle for his beer brand Kingfisher. He also apologized to his defunct airline employees; the discussion was quite interesting on the viral episode.
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The episode with Mallya also attracted memes, sad edits, and much more on the internet. Not only Mallya but Raj Shamani faced a lot of criticism for interviewing Mallya.
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Raj Shamani is facing backlash for whitewashing Mallya’s image
Netizens related it to Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju (2018), which featured Ranbir Kapoor portraying the troubled life of Sanjay Dutt. Critics remarked that the movie by Hirani was made on the life of the Bollywood actor, but Hirani claimed that he made the movie to tell a convincing story, and not because of personal connections or to whitewash Dutt’s image.
What netizens did not like in Mallya’s podcast was that the video made the fugitive appear as a victim living in tough times. Raj Shamani has been facing criticism for giving Mallya the platform since then.
Leaked photo of Raj Shamani and Vijay Mallya
Good morning
Happy Sunday
Live, love, laugh & prosper pic.twitter.com/3of9jcbBtZ— Rushik Rawal (@RushikRawal) June 8, 2025
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Here is how the viewers criticised and reacted to Shamani’s podcast featuring Vijay Mallya
hey guys, add @rajshamani in this line as well. After whitewashing all these images, he will need to wash his image as well. He will need to invite himself to his own podcast.
— source jr (@AnonymJr10293) June 8, 2025
A scene outside Raj Shamani’s podcast studio: pic.twitter.com/Mu7S4X6lke
— Fakeer Aadmi (@aadmi_fakeer) June 8, 2025
Why is Raj Shamani posting wrong map of India?
Why is he giving a platform to the fugitives of India?
Cc: @MumbaiPolice pic.twitter.com/Q4re9c0S1T
— Squint Neon (@TheSquind) June 11, 2025
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People after watching Vijay Mallya on Raj Shamani’s podcast : pic.twitter.com/7n1x6QG7e4
— lallantop memes (@AmitSah36414000) June 6, 2025
Raj Shamani podcast of Vijay Mallya pic.twitter.com/3UK58K74Do
— memes_hallabol (@memes_hallabol) June 6, 2025
Regarding the recovery certificate in the episode, Mallya said,
“It says the recovery certificate Rs 6203 crores 35 lakhs 3879 and paisa 42 only. That is the evidence of the debt. Where did this Rs 9000 crore figure come from?”
What are your thoughts on Raj Shamani providing the platform to the fugitive Vijay Mallya? Let us know in the comments.
