Jun 07, 2025 05:10 PM IST

In his first interview in years, former businessman Vijay Mallya spoke about his Kingfisher empire, including the famous annual calendar that saw numerous celebrities as models. On Raj Shamani’s podcast, he spoke of how his calendar girls’ careers skyrocketed after posing for him, bringing up why Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif were the right fit. (Also Read: ‘Male Mira Kapoor’: Housefull 5 director draws flak for comparing babies to dogs in Deepika Padukone-Vanga row)

Mallya was asked in the interview what he thinks of the models who featured in the Kingfisher calendar having their careers skyrocket after. He replied, “Well, because we chose the right girls. I mean, whether it was Deepika Padukone or Katrina Kaif, we had all the heroines and the stars on the calendar in their younger days.” When it was pointed out that these models weren’t stars when they posed for him, they became famous later, he said, “We picked well, we picked the right talent.”

The Kingfisher calendar is photographer Atul Kasbekar’s brainchild. From 2003 to 2021, he shot it annually with various Indian models worldwide. It was fashioned after the Pirelli calendar for Mallya’s brand. He admitted that they decided to make the swimsuit editions instead of ‘going all the way’ due to ‘social considerations of India’. An annual competition called the Kingfisher Calendar Model Hunt, now known as Kingfisher Supermodels, would be held to choose the models for it.

Numerous celebrities, including Deepika, Katrina, Yana Gupta, Karishma Kothak, Bruna Abdullah, Nargis Fakhri, Esha Gupta, Lisa Hayden, Saiyami Kher, Sobhita Dhulipala, Nora Fatehi, Shubra Aiyappa, and others, were calendar girls for it.

Deepika was last seen in Fighter, Kalki 2898 AD and Singham Again in 2024. On Friday, it was announced that she has been roped in to star in Atlee’s sci-fi film with Allu Arjun. Katrina was last seen in Merry Christmas in 2024. She has yet to announce her upcoming projects.