Netflix India released three of the four episodes of their controversial limited series, ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’. The episodes are available on Netflix feature Nirav Modi, Subrata Roy and Vijay Mallya.
The three episodes ready to stream are titled “The King of Good Times” (episode on Mallya), “Diamonds Aren’t Forever” (Nirav Modi), and “The World’s Biggest Family” (Subrata Roy).
The brief synopsis provided of the show by the website says: “This investigative docuseries explores the greed, fraud, and corruption that built up — and ultimately brought down — India’s most infamous tycoons.”
In the Mallya episode, viewers are shown a glimpse of the beer baron’s 1998 interview with Indian-origin British journalist Nikki Bedi. It was conducted at Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi Racecourse. Mallya was asked a series of questions about his love for horses and his views on being compared with Donald Trump.
Bedi asked, “Now you have been compared to Donald Trump (current US President). You are the Donald Trump of India – both in your personal life and in your business profiles. How do you feel about that?”
Mallya answered, “I don’t know Mr Trump personally. I have read a lot about him; he obviously likes to live his life as I indeed do. But I am not yet anywhere near bankruptcy.”
For the uninitiated, in 1998, two of Trump’s companies had filed for bankruptcy.
However, in the irony surfaced years later, when Mallya suffered a mammoth financial loss leading to the failure of Kingfisher Airlines, and was declared as a defaulter after failing to repay bank dues worth Rs 9,000 crores, forcing him to flee the country in 2016.
Meanwhile, Trump was elected as the US president in the same year.
‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ has courted its share of controversies even before it was released on OTT.
Earlier, a Hyderabad civil court had issued a stay order barring the digital platform from streaming the show. The order was issued following a petition by B. Ramalinga Raju, who is one of the billionaires featured in the show according to the promo. An order had also been passed by the Araria district court in Bihar based on the Sahara group’s argument that the show would damage Subrata Roy’s image.
On the other hand, the Delhi High Court adjourned the hearing on the plea filed by diamantaire Mehul Choksi, who is an accused in the PNB scam, against the Netflix’s documentary till October 13.
The petition filed by Choksi through advocate Vijay Aggarwal seeks the court’s direction to the OTT platform to not release the episode/portion of the documentary insofar as it relates to Choksi or is prejudicial to his rights or mentions him during the pendency of investigations and/or trials against him.
Source: Free Press Journal
