10/10 If You Guess India's Richest Film Producer

It’s widely known that films can be incredibly lucrative ventures, especially in India, where the industry generates crores of rupees annually. While stars often receive the spotlight as the faces of these projects, it is usually the financiers and producers who end up with the highest financial rewards- or significant losses. The wealthiest film producer in India operates primarily behind the scenes and tends to avoid the public eye, having accumulated an impressive fortune through his successful ventures in the film industry.

Kalanithi Maran, once referred to as “India’s Bill Gates”, is the wealthiest filmmaker in India, with a staggering net worth of $3.6 billion (around Rs 30,289 crore), according to Forbes. The Hindi film industry dwarfs the other film industries of India through its sheer size and audience reach. Yet, Maran’s wealth is more than any of the Bollywood biggies.

Kalanithi Maran is the founder of the Sun Group, a vast media conglomerate that oversees 37 television channels and a film production company, Sun Pictures. Through Sun Pictures, Maran has produced some of the most significant blockbusters in Tamil cinema, such as Enthiran, Petta, Beast, Jailer and Raayan. His productions have marked the pinnacle of success in the careers of many prominent actors, including Rajinikanth and Dhanush. Maran’s wealth far surpasses that of the second-richest filmmaker in India, Ronnie Screwvala, who has a net worth of Rs 13,000 crore.

Kalanithi Maran, the son of former Union Minister and businessman Murosali Maran, began his business journey in 1990 at the age of 26 after inheriting a modest enterprise from his father. In 1993, he established Sun TV, which has since evolved into a major broadcasting network in India. Over the years, Maran has expanded his business interests beyond the media sector. He owns two cricket teams: Sunrisers Hyderabad, which competes in the Indian Premier League, and Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the South Africa T20 League. Additionally, he was a significant shareholder in SpiceJet from 2010 to 2015, further diversifying his portfolio in the aviation industry.