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Head of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallya who is facing trial for alleged fraud and money laundering of Rs 9000 crore first time opened up about all the controversies in a podcast with Raj Shamani. The full episode of around 4 hours was released on Thursday wherein Mallya spoke about various things including the downfall of Kingfisher Airlines. He attributed its collapse largely to the 2008 global financial crisis. While talking about Kingfisher Airlines he said “So agreed then it worked in your favour till 2008. What happened then? Simple. You ever heard of Lehman Brothers? You ever heard of the global financial crisis right? Did it not impact India? Of course it did” he said. He added that the crisis had impacted many sectors like aviation and said “Every sector was hit. The money stopped. It got dry. The value of the Indian rupee also took a hit.” He also mentioned his efforts to save Kingfisher and shared that he approached then-Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. “I went to Shri Pranab Mukherjee... and said I have a problem. Kingfisher Airlines needs to downsize cut the number of aircraft and lay off employees as I can’t afford to operate under these depressed economic circumstances” he said. “I was told not to downsize. You continue banks will support you. That is how it all started. King Fisher Airlines has been forced to suspend all of its flights. King Fisher Airlines has been struggling. At the time when you asked loan the company was not doing that great” He added.