Kalanithi Maran

Kalanithi Maran is the Chairman of Kal Publications Private Limited, the publisher of Dinakaran newspaper and a part of Sun Group. He is also the Chairman of Sun Group and Executive Chairman of Sun TV Network Ltd. Kalanithi Maran is a Commerce Graduate from the University of Madras, and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States. Maran is the son of Murasoli Maran, the former Union Minister and a Dravida Munettra Kazhagam (DMK) party leader. Murasoli Maran, in turn, is the nephew of Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.

Kalanithi Maran launched the Sun TV, a Tamil General Entertainment Channel, in 1993, one of the first satellite TV channels of the country, after the liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991. Today, he is the Chairman of the Sun Group, one of the largest media conglomerates in the country, that has multiple business interests, including broadcast television, radio, newspapers, magazines, television distribution, aviation, and Indian franchisee cricket competition – the Indian Premier League.

Despite coming from a political family, Kalanithi Maran has not showed an inclination to join politics. Kalanithi Maran’s younger brother, Dayanidhi Maran was a Minister in the former Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), as a representative of the DMK. Kalanithi Maran’s Sun TV network has 33 television channels in the four South Indian languages – Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu. Sun Network’s television channels – Sun in Tamil, Udaya in Kannada, Surya in Malayalam and Gemini in Telugu – are dominant players in their respective regional markets. A 2011 Forbes list of “India’s Richest” ranked Kalanithi Maran as the 23rd richest Indian with a net worth of USD 2500 million.