Kalanithi Maran Biography
Kalanithi Maran is the Indian Entrepreneur, Business owner and the Forbes Billionaire. Forbes has estimated his net worth US $ 2.9 Billion in 2010 making him India’s Top 20 Richest people.
Kalanithi is the founder and Chairman and Managing Director of Sun Networks, The most profitable broadcaster in Asia. He owns Television channels, magazines, news papers, DTH Service and FM Radio Stations in South India.
In June 2010, He acquired Spice Jet Airlines.
Kalanithi was born in 1964.
Kalanithi Maran House, Education, Salary, Family, Pictures, Profile and Spice Jet Acquisition -
Kalanithi Maran was born in 1964 and he did his schooling at Don Bosco, Egmore, Chennai. After that he graduated from Loyola College, Chennai and after that received his MBA degree from University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.
He is the son of Former Union Minister of commerce Murasoli Maran, grandnephew of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, and the brother of India's textile minister Dayanidhi Maran.He is married to Kaveri who is the Joint Managing Director of Sun network.He proved to be successful in spite of his father's political rivals ruling the state for most of the period since he entered the media business. He also emerged as No1 in neighboring states where his competitors includes politicians and business men from those states.
He worked for Kunkumam, a weekly Tamil Magazine in the late 1980s, which he acquired at later stage.
In 1990 ,at the age of 26,He Started a monthly video (VHS) newsmagazine called Poomaalai, which was circulated among the Tamils in India and abroad.
He Founded SunTV on April 14, 1993 with an investment of Rs 20 Lakhs /(86000 USD).
Kalanithi is the highest paid Employee in India.
Kalanithi Maran was also among the few representatives at a roundtable with visiting U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Sun TV was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange on April 24, 2006.
Sun Network – Corporate Profile
Sun Network is an Indian media company based in Chennai,India owned by Kalanidhi Maran. It has been named as Asia's most profitable media corporations and the largest TV network.
Sun network started its operation on 14 April 1993 with 3 hours of Tamil programs in ATN channel under the banner of Sun TV after a similar proposal by Maran was rejected by Zee TV's junior executive. Sun Network gradually expanded its operations to 24 hours television channels in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali languages.
He owns 77% of what is the country's biggest regional broadcaster with 20 television channels and 46 FM radio stations. Interests include Sun Direct, a direct to home television service, co-owned by Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan's Astro Group, which has 4.5 million subscribers. His Sun Pictures, a film production outfit, is shooting a big-budget movie with a well-known cast, billed as India's most expensive movie-to-date.
Kalanithi Says,
“When I started satellite television, people laughed at me saying Tamil cannot be in satellite television, it’s too costly. When I started radio, they said television has come, radio is a dead business. When I started direct-to-home (DTH), they said there are too many big players. We are now 5.5 million subscribers strong. If I’m going to follow the herd, I’ll be one among the crowd... All my steps are calculated, I am not going blindly with intuition.”
Back home in 1987, he worked for a while on his father’s magazine Kungumum before going on to make his debut in the audio-visual space with monthly news video “Poomalai”. However, frustrated by rampant piracy and egged on by his vision to start his own bouquet of channels in the country, then 27-year-old Maran launched Sun Network in April 1993.
The big break came in 1998 when India liberalised the satellite broadcast industry. Sun Network was among the first to get a licence. And, as they say, there has been no looking back since. Detractors attribute Maran’s rapid rise to his family’s strong presence in national and state-level politics. Maran’s father Murasoli Maran was the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry between 1996 and 1998 in the Deve Gowda and the Gujral governments and again in the Vajpayee government from 1999 to 2002. Maran’s family has long controlled the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party.
Kalanithi Maran is the highest paid (Highest Salary) CEO in the country. Maran and his wife Kaveri were remunerated a little over Rs 37 crore each last fiscal. Interestingly, this is despite the two capping their collective salary at Rs 74.16 crore, about 22 per cent below their entitlement of Rs 94.80 crore for the year.
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