Vijay Mallya, the flamboyant businessman who just refused to grow up

Overly obsessed with a bleeding airline, he risked his best businesses in order to keep funding it long after it had ceased to make sense. And now, he's about to wake up to reality, writes T N Ninan

Vijay Mallya has had a penchant for making the news, and until recently he had done it in style. Early in his career, more than three decades ago, he began with typical flourish, launching a takeover bid for Shaw Wallace, the liquor company. The bid was in partnership with the then Dubai-based (and now late) Manu Chhabria, and Mr Mallya was picked up at Bangalore (as it was then) airport by the Enforcement Directorate on a charge of foreign exchange violation. Later there was a succession of deals — buying and selling companies, first to diversify and then to re-focus