“Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.” Benjamin Franklin
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews the new show #BadBoyBillionaires that dropped on #NetflixIndia last week. It has been in the news for a while now and the episode about Ramalinga Raju has been stymied owing to an injunction in the High Court. The three episodes streaming currently capture the meteoric rise and eventual downfall of Vijay Mallaya, Nirav Modi and Subroto Roy. It is pertinent to point out that both Modi and Mallya are now in the UK, fighting the extradition cases from India.
Each episode is directed by a different person. The Mallya episode #TheKingofGoodTimes is directed by #DylanMohanGray and features interviews with Sid Mallya, Shobha De, Tushita Patel and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. The flamboyance and larger than life pale into murky belligerence and plain arrogance when the filing airline is unable to pay salaries and the owners take off to Goa to party. The episode of an employee’s wife committing suicide should surely have acted as a warning signal. The references to Mallya as ‘childish’ and flamboyant by the well-wishers does not ring true at all. The interview where he is compared to Trump is interesting as Vijay Mallya states glibly “I’m not anywhere near bankruptcy”
#Diamondsaren’tforever is the episode on Nirav Modi and directed by #JohannaHamilton. This is perhaps the weakest of the three episodes and the lack of research is painfully apparent even as the footage of showrooms dominates the visuals.
The best episode is undoubtedly #NickRead’s #TheWorld’sBiggestFamily. The ingenuity with which Saharashri Subroto Roy built up his larger than life image with the hand-on-heart symbolism is incredible. The common dress-code, always well-groomed look and the aviator glasses make for a persona who is almost god-like for the poor and down-trodden whose money he looted.
An interesting trivia is that the organisation was called Parivaar or family so that he could claim that there was no money being raised from the public and that it was all transfer of funds within the family!
The show perhaps does not really highlight any new information for viewers but is a fascinating watch that makes you ponder on what drives this behaviour. How do some people game the system? How can someone be so callous with the system so as to send 127 trucks of documents when faced with an enquiry? How can someone be so oblivious to the needs of poor employees waiting for a meagre salary and party away in Goa? What drives this greed and sense of self-importance? Doesn’t hubris catch up with you? Isn’t it obvious that karma will lead to retribution?
Watch #BadBoyBillionaires and ponder over these questions. You may not get any new information or all the answers but it is an interesting conundrum and well worth the time!
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