Meet India’s richest filmmaker, owner of Rs 33,000 crore, richer than Shah Rukh, Amitabh, not Karan Johar, SS Rajamouli, or Sanjay Leela Bhansali, he is…

India's richest filmmaker surpasses even Bollywood legends like Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan in net worth. He is...

Filmmakers like Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, SS Rajamouli, Mani Ratnam, Rajkumar Hirani, and Sandeep Reddy Vanga, have an enormous net worth in Indian cinema, known for their quality films these names are mostly seen on top of the list. But you’ll be shocked to know that none of these names make it on the list of the richest directors in India. You’ll be surprised to know the name.

Directors like Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra are among the leading filmmakers in India and their net worth is huge, that’s no secret. But when it comes to India’s richest filmmaker, no one can compare to him. In fact, this man is richer than top Bollywood actors like Shah Rukh Khan and even Amitabh Bachchan.

So who is this man? He is now the 80th richest person in India. But he has nothing to do with Bollywood. His stronghold is the Tamil film industry. The man in question is none other than Kalanithi Maran.

Maran comes from a family with a political background. His father Murasoli Maran was a prominent leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party. Maran had his early education in Chennai before earning an MBA from the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA. In 1993, he started Sun TV and it has now become the Sun Group. Maran lives in Chennai and serves as its chairman.

His net worth is currently sits at a whopping Rs 33,400 crore, according to the Hurun India Rich List 2024. Maran’s wealth has increased by 34% in the last year but he has dropped five places in the ranking.

So where does all the money come from?

Maran’s Sun Group has more than 30 TV channels in the country. Apart from this, there are two newspapers, five magazines, Sun Pictures, OTT platform Sun NXT, DTH satellite service Sun Direct. Then there are two cricket teams. One is IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad and the other is Sunrisers Eastern Cape belonging to the South Africa T20 League. The Maran family owns a 75% stake in Sun TV.

During the IPL, Maran’s daughter Kavya can be seen leading and encouraging the SRH team. Over the past 14 years, his production house Sun Pictures has bankrolled blockbusters such as Enthiran, Petta, Jailer, Beast, Sarkar, Tiruchitrambalam and Ryan.

Kalanithi Maran who earned crores from cinema turned into a filmmaker with Siragugal released in 1999, but Sun Pictures did not return to films for another decade. He returned to filmmaking in 2010 with the Rajinikanth-starrer Enthiran and achieved success. Since then, he has produced hits like Sarkar, Petta (both starring Rajinikanth), as well as Raghava Lawrence’s Muni 3, Dhanush’s Tiruchitrambalam. His recent release Jailer is the highest-grossing Tamil film of all time.

Maran has built an empire in the industry since the beginning. That empire is still growing. Not only this, the Bollywood film industry is nowhere near him when it comes to competition. Maran is the richest film producer in India.