by Biography of Kalanithi Maran
- Born on the 22nd of July 1964 in Tamil Nadu, India. Before starting Sun TV Network in 1993, politician Kalanithi Maran dabbled in his family’s little publishing firm.
- With 33 stations reaching more than 95 million homes in India, Sun is currently a powerhouse in regional television.
- Sun’s influence also encompasses the South Indian diaspora, which is present in 27 different nations.
- Direct-to-home television, radio, and newspapers are among Maran’s other interests.
Net Worth of Kalanithi Maran
Kalanithi Maran has an estimated net worth of $2.3 billion. He is an Indian businessman and entrepreneur. India’s Tamil Nadu state is where Kalanithi Maran was born in 1964. After graduating from Loyola College, he served as the union’s president.
He graduated with an MBA from Scranton University. Maran returned to India in 1987 and started working for his family’s publication Kungumam Tamil. In 1990, he launched Poomaalai, a monthly VHS news magazine in Tamil.
Due to piracy, the company was shut down in 1992. In 1993, Maran launched Sun TV with $86,000 in bank financing. Sun TV was admitted to the Bombay Stock Exchange in 2005. On Bill Clinton’s trip to India, Maran was one of the select few who had the opportunity to speak with him. The highest-paid businessman in India and the 17th richest Indian according to the 2010 ranking was Kalanithi.
Barack Obama, the president of the United States, commended him for creating jobs in the country. Maran has won Young Businessman honors from CNBC and Ernst & Young.
Kalanithi Maran Career
Initially, Kalanithi worked as a circulation clerk for the Sumangli newspaper.
He was employed with the weekly Tamil publication Kunkumam in the late 1980s.
In 1990, he launched Poomalai, a monthly video news magazine (VHS), and distributed it among Tamils in India and overseas.
However, in 1992, piracy forced him to discontinue publishing Poomalai.
India liberalized the satellite broadcasting sector in 1998.
One of the first to obtain such a license was Sun Network, which established standards for all.
Maran obtained an $86,000 bank loan to launch Sun Network.
This concept was first turned down by the junior editor of Zed TV.
His success in national and state politics was attributed to his close family ties, depriving him of any deserved credit for the effort he put forth.
He claims that he has faced harsh criticism at every turn: “When I first launched satellite television, people laughed at me and said that Tamil couldn’t be on satellite television because it would be too expensive. When I first started on the air, people claimed that the radio was dead because television had arrived. They complained that there were too many major players when I began direct-to-home (DTH). We currently have 5.5 million subscribers.
Kalanithi Maran’s Political and Business Career
strong. I’ll blend in with the crowd if I go with the flow. My actions are all planned; I don’t just follow my gut.
The largest threat to his business materialized in 2007 when a political power that had previously aided him began to work against him.
The newspaper article that claimed the Maran family had rival political aspirations infuriated Chief Minister Karunanidhi and his supporters.
At this point, when the detractors believed that his career was ended, he emerged as a seasoned businessman who patiently managed challenges.
2010 saw the filing of a criminal complaint against Kalanithi Maran by Jak Communications, a cable TV distribution business owned by Azhagri.
Kalanithi Maran Award & Achievement
Maran, who has a net worth of $4 billion, is one of India’s 20 wealthiest individuals according to Forbes.
He currently controls FM radio stations in India along with magazines, newspapers, television channels, and DTH services as the Founder Chairman and Managing Director of Sun Networks. He entered the aviation industry in June 2010 and bought the budget airline Spice Jet.
This decision was well-recognized since it reduced risk by entering a new field before prices spiked.
He is the nation’s highest-paid CEO. He controls 77% of the largest national broadcaster in the nation, which consists of 20 television channels and 46 FM radio stations.
Together with Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan’s Astro business, he co-owns Sun Direct, a direct-to-home television service with 4.5 million members.
His movie-making company, Sun Pictures, is now filming a big-budget movie with a recognizable cast that is being dubbed as India’s most expensive movie to date.
He was given the Ernst and Young, CNBC, “Young Businessman” award.
He was referred to in Forbes as “The Television King of South India.”
Kalanithi Maran has earned a reputation for correctly predicting “The-Next-Big-Thing” and making progress towards putting it into action.
Kalanithi Maran’s Family
His brother Dayanidhi Maran is India’s textile minister, while his father, Murasoli Maran, served as the country’s former minister of commerce.
He is also M. Karunanidhi, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu,’s great-nephew. He has firsthand knowledge of both the gains and setbacks that come with having strong familial ties.
He wed Kaveri, a Kannadiga, in 1991. She serves as Sun Network’s Joint Managing Director. Their daughter, whom they called Kavya, was born in 1992.
Educational life of Kalanithi Maran
He attended Loyola College in Chennai after completing his coursework at Don Bosco in Egmore, Chennai. He advocated for numerous causes while serving as the leader of the student union at college. Later, he pursued his MBA at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, the United States.
Maran Growth despite disagreements
Despite dealing with a number of difficulties and issues, Kalanithi Maran has been able to keep her riches reasonably constant. He became involved in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) 2011 money laundering investigation against his younger brother Dayanidhi Maran.
The promoter of the telecom business Aircel, C. Sivasankaran, was allegedly forced by Dayanidhi to sell it to Malaysia’s Maxis Communications Berhad, which then invested in the Sun Group.
Additionally, Sun TV was accused of running an unauthorized phone exchange with 323 high-speed lines that were allegedly used for data transmission, streaming video, and television programming.
The security clearance for Sun TV was deemed to be revoked by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2015. Nevertheless, despite these difficulties, Sun TV Network Ltd reported fiscal year 2014–15 revenues of around USD 271 million (INR 2,244 crore) and a net profit of roughly USD 89 million (INR 737 crore).
Maran legend: Sun King and his brother
The Maran brothers have built one of the nation’s most powerful media organizations in less than three decades. The 50-year-old chairman and managing director of the Sun Group, Kalanithi Maran, was in charge of this expedition.
His media empire has 33 stations in four languages that reach more than 95 million households, dominating the southern television market. In India, the greatest network of TV channels is owned by The Sun Group.
Additional commercial ventures of the group include direct-to-home broadcasting, 45 FM radio stations, two daily newspapers, and six periodicals. The Hyderabad cricket team of the Indian Premier League was purchased by Kalanithi Maran and given the moniker Sun Risers last year.
According to exchange data, the majority of the group’s estimated Rs 13,848.13 crore media industry is under the management of Sun Television Network, which is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. In 2010, Kalanithi Maran acquired SpiceJet, a low-cost airline with a market value of approximately Rs 685 crore.
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