Kaviya Maran
Kaviya Maran joined the Sun TV Network board in 2019 and now heads Sun Group's Sunrisers cricket franchises in Hyderabad, South Africa and England.
A Board Seat at Sun TV Network in April 2019
The name on the stock exchange filing was Kaviya Kalanithi Maran. On 22 March 2019, Sun TV Network told the exchanges that its board had appointed her as an Additional Director and Executive Director with effect from 1 April 2019, for a five-year term subject to shareholder approval by postal ballot, exchange4media reported. The same filing named R Mahesh Kumar as Managing Director and two new independent directors, and recorded that K Vijayakumar, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, had resigned from that post with effect from 31 March 2019 while staying on the board as an Executive Director. The trade paper read her appointment as the entry of one more next-generation entrepreneur into the industry: she is the daughter of Kalanithi Maran, the company's promoter.
That is the inheritance. Sun TV Network is the listed arm of the Sun Group, the Chennai media business her father founded and chairs. Her mother, Kavery Maran, is associated with the leadership of Sun TV Network, and her uncle Dayanidhi Maran is a DMK leader and Member of Parliament, according to The Tribune. The paper adds, citing media reports, that she completed her undergraduate studies at Stella Maris College in Chennai before an MBA at Warwick Business School in the UK. Most of the press spells her first name Kavya. The company filings keep Kaviya, and this article follows the filings.
Chief Executive of Sunrisers Hyderabad
The job that made her a public figure is not the board seat. She is the chief executive officer of Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Sun Group's Indian Premier League franchise, and head of sports for the group across its cricket teams. Fans know her from the stands at IPL matches and from the player auction table, where she represents the franchise and takes part in its team-building, The Tribune wrote in October 2026. Entrepreneur India, which interviewed her in February 2026 under the headline "The Believer", introduced her as executive director of Sun TV Network Limited and head of sports for the Sunrisers.
The Tribune's background on the franchise runs like this: Sunrisers Hyderabad entered the IPL in 2013 after the Sun Group acquired the franchise following the termination of Deccan Chargers, won its first title in 2016 and returned to the final in 2024. The sourced record does not say when she took the chief executive title. The sites that give a year do not meet the standard this article works to, so no year appears here.
Asked by Entrepreneur India about her place in a family company, she described herself as a bridge between tradition and change, someone who respects what came before while helping to shape what comes next.
Newlands, February 2024: Sunrisers Eastern Cape Keep the SA20
The second team carries the same name on another continent. Sunrisers Eastern Cape play in South Africa's SA20, and in February 2024 at Newlands in Cape Town they beat Durban's Super Giants by 89 runs in the final, 204 for 3 against 115 all out, to keep the title they had won the season before. Business Day's report called them back-to-back champions, and its photo caption named franchise owner Kavya Maran lifting the trophy.
On running teams in more than one league she told Entrepreneur India that each cricketing nation has its own strengths. The remark describes a group that was already shopping for a third.
Headingley and the Northern Superchargers
In 2025 the Sun Group bought 100 percent of the Northern Superchargers, the Hundred franchise based at Headingley. Yorkshire County Cricket Club announced on 30 July 2025 that the sale to the Sun Group had now completed, with operational control passing to the buyer from 1 October 2025. The club's statement described the Sun Group as the owner of Sunrisers Hyderabad and Sunrisers Eastern Cape. The price was not disclosed in that announcement, and no filing stating it was opened for this article, so no figure appears here. By October 2026 The Tribune was listing the English team as Sunrisers Leeds alongside the Hyderabad and Eastern Cape sides.
Maran set out the aim before the first English season: a franchise that feels authentic and competitive from the outset, in her words to Entrepreneur India. With the Headingley deal the group fields a Sunrisers side in India, South Africa and England, and she is the executive responsible for all three. That is the part she built rather than inherited: the franchises were bought with Sun Group money, but the sports operation that runs them across three leagues is the one she fronts.
The Maran Fortune and What Is Hers
Coverage of her wedding plans has called her the heir to a fortune measured in tens of thousands of crore. The figures belong to her father. The Forbes real-time estimate for Kalanithi Maran stood at about USD 2.6 billion on 19 October 2026, with media as the source of wealth and the profile listing one child. The Hurun India Rich List 2026 put him at around Rs 24,600 crore, ranked 146th, as quoted by The Tribune. A Daily Jagran table of the same list, published 24 September 2026, gave Rs 33,400 crore with a footnote that the number reflects the whole Sun Group. The two Hurun readings do not agree, and this article does not choose between them.
No figure is given for Maran's own net worth, because none can be derived. No primary filing opened for this article discloses a shareholding in Sun TV Network in her name, and no remuneration figure was opened either. The Tribune itself cautions that the Rs 24,600 crore figure is her father's and should not be read as hers. Until a shareholding or a pay figure is on record, the honest answer is that her wealth is a share of a family fortune whose size depends on who is counting.
A Reception in Chennai on 21 November 2026
In mid-October 2026 the Telangana Chief Minister's Office posted that Sun Group chairman Kalanithi Maran and his wife Kavery Maran had met Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy at his Jubilee Hills residence and invited him to the wedding reception of their daughter, Kavya Maran, scheduled for Chennai on 21 November, as reported by Oneindia. Press reports, The Tribune among them, named the groom as the music composer Anirudh Ravichander and placed the ceremony in Greece in November, but Oneindia noted that the date and venue had not been officially confirmed and that neither party had publicly confirmed the arrangements. Beyond the reception invitation, nothing about the wedding is on record from the couple themselves.
Sources
- Kaviya Kalanithi Maran joins Sun TV Network's Board of Directors
- Who is Kavya Maran? Sunrisers Hyderabad CEO set to marry music composer Anirudh Ravichander - The Tribune
- The Believer: Kaviya Kalanithi Maran, Head of Sports, Sunrisers
- Sale of Northern Superchargers to the Sun Group completed - Yorkshire County Cricket Club
- Sunrisers celebrate as undisputed SA20 champions
- Kalanithi Maran
- Shah Rukh Khan's Wealth Drops By ₹2490 Cr In One Year, Still Remains India's Richest Actor In 2026; Know Top 10
- Anirudh Ravichander-Kavya Maran Wedding: Family Invites Vijay, Stalin, Greece Ceremony Planned For 11 November - Oneindia News
Filed Under Topics
Related Life Stories & Dossiers
Further inspiring trajectories within Business and influential circles.
BusinessJennifer Meyer
Jennifer Meyer, the Los Angeles jewelry designer, on her self-funded 2005 start, the Barneys order, Net-a-Porter, her Palisades store and her two marriages.
BusinessRande Gerber
Rande Gerber opened The Whiskey in 1991, co-founded Casamigos with George Clooney, and sold it to Diageo. The deal terms, his family, and what is not disclosed.