Maran Vs Maran: A Feud That Erupted In 2007 And Came Full Circle In 2025

An explosive legal notice sent by Lok Sabha MP Dayanidhi Maran to his elder brother Kalanithi Maran and the latter’s wife Kaveri Kalanithi Maran has opened a can of worms. According to the legal notice, the second since 2010, the elder Maran has been accused of cheating the younger Maran, their mother Mallika Maran, sister Anbukkarasi as well as MK Dayalu Ammal, the wife of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.  

The feud itself is not new. What is new is that the legal notice sent by the DMK MP has been leaked to the press.  

The history of the Karunanidhi family and the Maran branch of the same family is a difficult and complex one – and a fragile peace has now been ripped open to the public.  

Before we delve into the intrigues of the first family of Tamil Nadu, here is a flowchart that explains how the various actors in the drama are connected – by blood and by marriage.

So what happened between the two Maran brothers?  

In his legal notice, Dayanidhi Maran alleges that his father, Murasoli Maran, the voice of the DMK in Delhi, had died intestate on Sept. 7, 2003. With no will being left behind, his assets and properties fell to the remaining legal heirs – his mother Shanmugasundaram, his widow Mallika Maran, Kala and Daya Maran and their sister Anbukkarasi. Dayanidhi alleges that Kalanithi had “fraudulently” written 60% of the shareholding of Sun TV’s predecessor company Sumangali Publications over to himself. He accuses his elder brother of cheating their mother Mallika and sister Anbukkarasi of falling prey to his alleged machinations and handing over their shares in Sun TV for a pittance.

Sumangali Publications was a flailing firm that printed the Sumangali magazine in the 1970s and 1980s. This company would eventually become Sun TV.  

Annual reports from 1987 onwards show that Mallika Maran, mother of the now-warring Maran brothers, signed filings in her capacity as the director. There is no clear information as to how the shareholding is split up or who the other shareholders were.  

From April 1989 onwards, Kalanithi was “engaged as a Management Consultant cum Chief Executive” at a fee of Rs 1,000 per month. From 1991, this retainer increased to Rs 1,500 per month.  

Dayalu Ammal, wife of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, signed the Annual Report of Sumangali Publications in her capacity as director in August 1993.

In May 1997, Kalanithi was still listed as an employee of the company – although he got a big bump-up in salary to Rs 6.95 lakh. 

Until 1997, there is no mention of either of the Maran brothers becoming directors of Sumangali Publications.

It is in the 1997-98 Annual Report that the first mention of Kalanithi Maran being appointed a director first appears.

By this time, Kalanithi had turned a dead business around. In 1997-98, the company’s turnover doubled from Rs 32.48 crore to Rs 64 crore and the profit after depreciation and tax increased from Rs 9.08 crore to Rs 24.18 crore.

In 1999, another director’s name appears in the annual report. S Selvam, Kalanithi’s paternal uncle and the son-in-law of Karunanidhi became a director. Selvam is better known as ‘Murasoli’ Selvam as he was instrumental in running Murasoli, the official party mouthpiece of the DMK.

It is also in this year that the company started its Malayalam channel Surya TV and Sun Pictures was born.

By March 2000, Sumangali Publications officially changed its name to Sun TV Limited with Kalanithi Maran and ‘Murasoli’ Selvam as the directors. 

Up until this point, the Karunanidhi family as well as the Maran family were represented on the board.

In 2005, Karunanidhi’s family sold their shares in Sun TV to Kalanithi Maran, reportedly for about Rs 100 crore.

"But then Sun TV listed,” said a source within the DMK who was aware of this transaction. “And the Karunanidhi family realised they had got a pittance for their shares. They felt slighted and cheated by Kalanithi and began to distance themselves from him,” said the source.

On April 24, 2006, Sun TV listed on the BSE and the NSE at a premium of Rs 865 per share. Kalanithi Maran’s then 36-year-old daughter entered the management fray – she was named as the Joint MD of the company and her father remained the chairman and managing director.

In the run-up to the historic 2006 elections, the DMK’s Karunanidhi promised free colour televisions to the people of Tamil Nadu. An election without an issue suddenly swung in the DMK’s favour. But from managing coalition partners to errant leaders to deterioration in law and order, patriarch Karunanidhi would face extraordinary issues in his final term as chief minister.

Come 2007, the Maran brothers continued to be on good terms, at least outwardly. Kalanithi, flying high on power and a monopoly of the cable TV network in the state, quietly began to build what he called the ‘Murasoli Peravai’. He began to lure DMK leaders to the outfit and word reached the then Chief Minister Karunanidhi that the Marans were eyeing to take over the party.

At the same time, his Tamil newspaper Dinakaran published the results of a survey which asked the question – who would Karunanidhi’s heir be? The result of the poll gave a thumping majority to MK Stalin. 

Karunanidhi’s elder son Alagiri was enraged. His men burnt down the Dinakaran office in Madurai, leaving three staffers dead. Karunanidhi was equally enraged – how could Kalanithi dare to ask the question of his successor when Karunanidhi was very much alive and well!

Overnight, the Maran brothers fell out of favour. Dayanidhi, then Union IT minister, was stripped of his portfolio which was given to A Raja. Sun TV was summarily asked to move out of the DMK headquarters where it was housed. The Karunanidhi family launched Kalaignar TV to manage their party propaganda. 

“Overnight everything changed,” one former Sun TV employee who worked there at the time told NDTV Profit. “We did not have food because the canteen was closed to us. Kalanithi’s team organised lunch in carriers for us. The DMK shut off water in our office toilets. We had to carry water in Bisleri cans,” he said.

The Sun TV office shifted to Hotel Admiralty close to the beach and set up operations all over again.

This development finds place in the 2008 Annual Report. "The Registered Office of the Company has been shifted from 367/369, Anna Salai Teynampet, Chennai 600 018 to 4, Norton Road, Mandaveli, Chennai 600 028 India with effect from 15th May 2008.”

The divorce between the Karunanidhi family and the Maran family was complete. The annual report records that ‘Murasoli’ Selvam & Mrs Selvi ceased to be key management personnel with effect from April 1, 2007. ‘Murasoli’ Selvam resigned from Sun TV on March 28, 2009. Dividends have been paid out to them. 

The brothers were out in the cold. But Karunanidhi’s daughter Selvi prevailed upon her father and forged a fragile peace between the elderly chief minister and the Marans. Karunanidhi reluctantly agreed, as the 2009 elections approached and he needed the muscle and might of Kalanithi’s Sun Network.

Exact timelines are hard to pinpoint but sources told NDTV Profit that the wives of the brothers – Kaveri Kalanithi Maran and Priya Dayanidhi Maran – could not see eye to eye. The rise and rise of Kavya Maran in the management of the vast Sun Network and Sun Risers Hyderabad, is also said to have upset Dayanidhi’s daughter Divya.

“Daya has held talks with Kala and asked for an amount of around Rs 6,000 crore which includes the original shares of Sumangali Publications as well as the contributions made by Daya over the years,” said the source. “The brothers haggled and Daya is said to have agreed to Rs 2,000 crore. But Daya wanted a one-time payment, which Kala refused. Kala offered to pay him Rs 100 crore per annum for 20 years. Daya could not stomach that,” said the source. 

The first legal notice went to Kalanithi sometime in 2010, although the exact details are not yet known. This further enraged Kalanithi, who is said to have threatened to evict Dayanidhi and family from their post Boat Club residence right next door to Kalanithi’s. Dayanidhi’s house is registered in Kalanithi’s name on paper. Neither Dayanidhi Maran, nor Kalanithi Maran could be reached for comment on this issue.

Another source close to Dayanidhi told NDTV Profit that he, as an MP, would sign numerous documents and that the suspicion in that camp was that “Kala’s men had quietly taken his signature on blank sheets of paper and that was probably how Kala got Daya’s share in the company." NDTV Profit was unable to independently verify whether this took place or not.

With the DMK watching this fight between the brothers with barely concealed glee, it is now open season for an investigation into the fortune of the Marans. Dayanidhi has given the agencies an entry into the melee.