Career
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Kalanithi Maran went to the United States to pursue an MBA degree at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. He was fascinated by the number of television channels available there, whereas India still had one due to the Doordarshan monopoly. Upon completing his MBA, he returned to India in 1987 to work for his family's small publishing company, which included a weekly women's magazine. In 1990, Maran started a monthly video magazine in Tamil called Poomaalai. For every copy given to a public library, about 200 pirated copies were produced. The primary market of Poomaalai was Sri Lankan Tamils who fled to Europe. [8] On the 14th of April 1993, he founded Sun TV. [8] [9] Sun TV was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange on the 24th of April 2006 upon raising $133 million for 10% of the share capital, catapulting him into the billionaire charts. [10] [11] He was among the few representatives at a roundtable with the visiting then US President Bill Clinton. [12]
He has won Young Businessman awards from CNBC and Ernst & Young, [13] and Forbes magazine named him the "Television king of southern India". [14]
Under his leadership, channels owned by the Sun TV Network became some of the most viewed and commercially successful channels in South India. Sun TV was also the first channel in the country to establish its own earth station. [12]
In June 2010, he acquired a 37% stake in SpiceJet from billionaire investor Wilbur Ross and promoter Bhupendra Kansagra, in his individual capacity and through his aviation company KAL Airways. He also put up an open offer for 20%, which increased his stake to more than 50%. [7] [15] [16]
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$7.3 million) each in 2014. [17]
On 24 February 2015, he sold his stake in SpiceJet to Ajay Singh, the co-founder of the airline, as a part of a reconstruction and revival scheme, since the airline was facing huge losses. [18] [19]
In 2023, he was the 77th richest Indian, with a net worth of US$3 billion. The same year, his production house, Sun Pictures, produced Jailer , starring Superstar Rajnikanth, and went on to become the highest performing film of 2023 and second-highest grossing Tamil film of all-time. [20]
