From entertainment to aviation, the journey of Kalanidhi Maran

When Kalanidhi Maran, who late Saturday sealed a $200-million deal to buy majority stake in budget carrier SpieceJet was named among 40 richest Indians by Forbes last year, it was testimony to the mercurial rise of this first-generation entrepreneur at such a young age.
Being scion of a family rooted deep in politics - his father Murasoli was a union commerce and industry minister, his grand uncle M. Karunanidhi is Tamil Nadu chief minister and his younger sibling Dayanidhi is union textiles minister - business was not a natural choice for him.
Neither was he interested in what otherwise remains his extended family's passion.
Seeds of his business dreams were sown early. During his student days in Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s where he got a master's in business administration from the University of Scranton, he was awed by the large number of television channels available in the US catering to every possible segment. He was 25 and wanted to start his own bouquet of channels in India.
In 1991, he took the plunge and started a weekly video magazine in Tamil, his mother tongue, but was frustrated by rampant piracy. That's when he finally took the decision to start Sun TV, and began beaming programmes from a Russian satellite.
The big break came in 1998 when India liberalised the satellite broadcast industry and Sun TV was among the first to get a licence.
Today, his SUN TV Network boasts 20 channels that reach 95 million households in India. It also beams to 27 overseas destinations with large south Indian diaspora, including the US, Canada, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Srilanka, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
He also took his company public and it made a stunning debut when it was first quoted at on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) April 26, 2006.
Now, Maran has set his eyes on aviation with SpiceJet. 'SpiceJet is among a few Indian airlines running profitably,' Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equity head at leading brokerage SMC Capitals told IANS. 'It can also start overseas operations and as and when the government eases foreign equity norms on aviation, it will be a strong contender for takeover.'
13/06/10 IANS/Sify

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Categories: New Jun 2010, SpiceJet Jun 2010