முதல்வர் கருணாநிதி குடும்பம் வாரிசுகள் இந்தியா டூடே செய்தி

India today Kalaignar Karunanidhi family tree article,

7-9-2010 இந்தியா டூடே இதழில் வெளிவந்த செய்தி..

Arulnidhi Thamizharasu's debut movie in Tamil is titled Vamsam, which literally means "lineage", and there could hardly have been a more apt title considering that the young hero is the grandson of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi. At the movie's music launch last month, the DMK patriarch advised the youngster: "I want to see you make a successful career through your hard work and not because of your family background." Neither had worked for the last member of the family to face the arclights, M.K. Muthu, Arulnidhi's uncle and Karunanidhi's son from the first of his three wives, who in the 70s acted in a handful of movies, all of which bombed. The fears of the same happening to Arulnidhi are, however, remote considering the vice-like grip that the first family of Tamil Nadu has come to acquire over the entertainment industry in the state.

Consider these: Karunanidhi's extended family, which is making a relatively late entry into the movie business, already has a near monopoly in the satellite TV business and rules the airwaves. The Sun TV Network, owned by grand-nephew Kalanidhi Maran and his brother Dayanidhi Maran, the Union textiles minister, boasts of 20 channels that reach 95 million households in India. It also beams to 27 countries with a large south Indian diaspora, including the US, Canada, most of Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It runs 45 FM radio stations, two daily newspapers with a combined daily circulation of 1.2 million, four magazines and SunDirect, the direct-to-home satellite TV service which has 5.5 million subscribers.

Karunanidhi
Sun TV controls over two-thirds of the cable market through its subsidiary Sumangali Cable Vision, and earns close to Rs 90 crore every month from subscribers. Sun Pictures, the movie arm of the Rs 1,000-crore Sun Network owned by the Maran brothers has distributed over a dozen films since 2007 and recently landed Kollywood's biggest catch Endhiran, starring Tamil superstar Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. At Rs 150 crore, it is supposed to be the costliest movie made in India and it is said Sun Pictures took it up after Rajinikanth approached Kalanidhi, as the original promoter pulled out citing financial reasons. "When we met Kalanidhi for the film he said we will make it the biggest. He does anything and everything bigger and better than others. That's why people who matter in India from all industries-cinema or otherwise-are eager to know who this man is. He is really the biggest star," Rajinikanth gushed at the music launch of Endhiran in Malaysia early this month.

Rajinikanth may well have been speaking about the family itself which is a collection of sons, daughters, grandsons and grand-daughters, nephews and grand-nephews, equally divided and split between politics and business and equally successful in both. There's Kalanidhi, grandson of Karunanidhi's sister Shanmuga sundarammal, who got his MBA from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s and returned home to take charge of a women's magazine his family was associated with. But his passion remained television, which was then dominated by the state broadcaster. His big break came in 1998 when the satellite broadcast industry was handed to private players and Sun TV was among the first to get a licence. The rest, as they say, is history.

Kalanidhi's brother Dayanidhi found his calling in politics and is none the worse, being a minister in both UPA I and II. Then there is Udayanidhi Stalin, the 33-year-old son of Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin for whom movies have always been a passion. Says Udayanidhi: "Growing up in a family of scriptwriters, producers and directors, I naturally developed an interest in this industry. Besides my grandfather was a screenplay and script writer, my father and uncles have produced and acted in films. Cinema runs in our blood".

Two of the biggest Tamil productions slated for the near future are from Udayanidhi's Red Giant Movies banner-Manmadhan Ambu, starring Kamal Hassan, and Boss Engira Baskaran with Arya in the lead. He launched his production house in 2008 by releasing the Vijay-starrer Kuruvi. Today, Udayanidhi runs one of the leading production and distribution companies in Kollywood, which has churned out some of the biggest recent hits in the industry-among them, Madarasapattinam and Goutham Vasudev Menon's Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya. "Udayanidhi really made the project big. He showed personal interest in every aspect of the film and promoted it well," says director Vijay. Udayanidhi now has set the bar higher and wants to be an actor. He has signed a film which is to go on sets in December this year. "It's a romantic comedy and I have all the nervousness and inhibitions of a newcomer but I want to give it a try," says Udayanidhi. His wife Kiruthiga has also directed two documentaries on aids awareness, both produced by her husband. "She's very independent and wants to try on her own. I've heard some of her scripts. If all works out well she might be a director soon," he says. She runs a fashion magazine called Inbox1305.

Arulnidhi (left ) with his grandfather at the music launch of his movie Vamsam.
Udayanidhi's success in the industry has now prompted his cousin and the son of Union Chemicals and fertilisers minister M.K. Azhagiri's son Durai Dayanidhi Azhagiri to follow the family script. His production house Cloud Nine movies has had two blockbusters in recent times-Vaaranam Ayiram, and Paiyya. His next is Nan Mahan Alla and Ram Gopal Varma's Rakta Charitra. Durai Dayanidhi also owns the Royal Cable Vision, a multiple system operator in the Madurai region which hit the headlines for the first time when it blocked out Sun TV and its associate channels in the entire Madurai region when Karunanidhi's relationship with the Marans was strained. Like so many others in the family, Durai is also bitten by the acting bug.

Another family entrant in the industry is Karunanidhi's nephew Amirtham's son Gunanithi. He has already produced two movies and is now on to his third production. He is also the CEO of Kalaignar TV, which was launched after the first family's fallout with the Marans. The Kalaignar TV network, like the Sun Network also has a bouquet of around five channels. The Sun Network and the Kalaignar TV network now work together, after the family patched up.

Industry watchers in Chennai vouch for Karunanidhi's grandsons' talents. "They have fresh ideas and even money to invest to bring the best out of the industry", says one film critic. But others point out that the family is not only ruling the industry but has also monopolised the theatre business. Around 90 per cent of the theatres in the state are controlled by Kalanidhi, Udayanidhi or Dayanidhi. Sun Pictures controls 30 per cent of the theatres in the state that were earlier run by rivals. Udayanidhi's territory extends from Chennai to Tiruchirapalli while cousin Dayanidhi controls a large number of theatres in the Coimbatore to Madurai region. The practice of minimum guarantee in the state gives them a leeway. It is a marketing strategy under which the theatre owner pays the distributor and the money is shared in a prearranged ratio of 60:40 between the producer and the distributor. But critics say that the strategy is burning huge holes in the pockets of distributors and theatre owners. Around 2,400 theatres have closed down in a span of 18 years. "We are facing major losses," says Tamil Nadu theatre owners' association secretary Rohini Paneerselvam. The theatres are blocked for movies that don't fare well at the box office. An example: when Pen Singam, a movie scripted by Karunanidhi, was released it held up 12 other movies which couldn't find any theatres. "We are forced to run certain movies for 20 days irrespective of their collections," says a theatre owner. Industry sources say around 64 films are still in cans due to a shortage of theatres.

Though the Tamil film industry produces about 150 films a year, on an average only between 100 and 120 reach theatres, says a recent FICCI study on the Tamil film industry. The study further states that the Tamil film industry is estimated to have crossed Rs 800 crore in terms of total revenue generated during 2009-2010. Of this 65 per cent came from big-budget films, while the rest from those with relatively small budgets. Alarmingly, while only a few years ago half the films managed to recoup their investments or gather massive profits, the hit ratio has dropped from 50 per cent to 15 per cent in the last four years.

According to a veteran film director, the industry feels safe if a new movie is produced or released by one of the four production houses owned by the family. The reasons are threefold: in case of a controversy, a lid is promptly clamped. Equally important, there are no attacks on theatres screening productions by the family. But the most important advantage that home productions have is the synergy the tv channels provide. Promotions of their productions are aired frequently, and then there are rave reviews on TV shows as well.

Such is the stranglehold of the Karunanidhi family on India's second largest film industry that a leading Tamil magazine recently carried a cartoon announcing a new film release with the caption, "For the first time in history, a brand new film written by Kalaignar, produced by Kalaignar's grandson, directed by Kalaignar's grand-nephew and starring Kalaignar's grandson to screen on Kalaignar TV." A livid Kalaignar cited the example of Rajinikanth, Prithviraj Kapoor and Kamal Hassan to defend the entry of his family members into the industry. "Such comments are made by people who have only politics on their minds. Why shouldn't I have children or grand-children? And why shouldn't they get into films if they like?" Karunanidhi thundered at a function in Chennai.

A leading scriptwriter of the Kollywood film industry, Karunanidhi even as chief minister always refers to film fraternity as his extended family. The reference is quite literal now.

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