Vijay Mallya, 52, is sometimes referred to as the “Richard Branson of India”. He is chairman and managing director of the UB Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates with annual sales of more than £2 billion and a market capitalisation of £6 billion.

Mallya was elected chairman of the group in 1983 at the age of 28, after the death of his father, and has since developed and enlarged it. The group now has interests in brewing, distilling, real estate, engineering, fertilisers, biotechnology, information technology and aviation.

Among recent acquisitions is White & Mackay, the Scotch whisky distillers. Three years ago Mallya set up Kingfisher Airlines, which is already India’s biggest domestic carrier with 550 departures daily. His Kingfisher beer brand accounts for 60 per cent of the Indian market and sells 2.5 million cases in Europe annually.

Mallya has all the trappings of the super-rich with homes in India, Europe and the United States, a collection of racing cars and a superyacht named Indian Empress. He owns the Bangalore IPL cricket franchise, a football team, racehorses, polo teams and now a Formula One team.

In motor racing his hero is Michael Schumacher, whom he met when he sponsored the Benetton Formula One team in the 1990s. “He was clearly not just a talented driver but a genius in many ways,” Mallya said of the German seven-times world champion.

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