Kalanithi Maran

Kalanithi Maran is an Indian media proprietor who is the chairman and founder of the Sun Group. He owns television channels, newspapers, weeklies, FM radio stations, DTH services, 2 cricket teams (Sunrisers Hyderabad) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Sunrisers Eastern Cape in South Africa T20 League (SA20), along with a movie production house, Sun Pictures. He also held a major share in the Indian airline Spice Jet from 2010 to 2015.

In 1990, Maran started a monthly magazine in Tamil called Poomaalai. On 14 April 1993, he founded Sun TV. Sun TV was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange on 24 April 2006 upon raising $133 million[10] for 10% of the share capital, catapulting him into the billionaire charts.[11] He was among the few representatives at a roundtable with the visiting then US President Bill Clinton.[12]

By 2023, he was the 77th richest Indian, with a net worth of US$3 Billion,[13] and is the highest paid business executive in India.[14] Maran and his wife, Kavery were ranked the highest paid Business executives in the list of Indian executive pay charts with a package of ₹ 62 crore (US$7.8 million) each.

He has won Young Businessman awards from CNBC and Ernst & Young,[15] and Forbes magazine named him the "Television king of southern India".[16]

Kalanithi Maran is the son of the former Union Minister of India Murasoli Maran and grand-nephew of Former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi. His younger brother Dayanidhi Maran was also a former minister. Kalanithi Maran married Kavery, a native of Kodagu, and has a daughter named Kaviya Kalanithi Maran (born November 3, 1991) who is an MBA graduate from Stern School of Business, New York University,USA.[17] Kalanithi Maran did his schooling in Don Bosco, Egmore, Chennai. He graduated in commerce from Loyola College, Chennai. He did his MBA from University of Scranton.[18] As of 2023, his net worth is US$3 billion.[19]