As many of us know Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani are in the top 10 richest people in the world. Though Kalanidhi Maran and Dayanidhi Maran are quite popular names in Chennai and Tamil Nadu, they are not as popular as Lakshmi Mittal or the Ambani brothers around the world.

Having kept a very close view on the businesses owned and purchased by Mukesh and Anil Ambani, as well as the business strategy adopted by Kalanidhi Maran and his team, I have a strong belief that Kalanidhi Maran will become the richest man in the world before 2020, and if things go right, even before 2015.

Kalanidhi Maran shot into fame with his technology advancements using his Sun Networks which now has the biggest viewership in South India channels. He then diversified into two related fields:

– Sun DTH – The Direct To Home Network in Tamil Nadu, thus monopolising the cable TV reach

– Sun Pictures – Producing many of the top movies in Tamil, thus expanding into the movie industry

With such calculated moves, it is very clear that in the future, there is going to be a well rounded expansion in media industry. It is just a matter of time before which Sun Cinemas will be launched (similar to Big Cinemas) with their own theaters all over the world.

 The latest diversification from Kalanidhi Maran’s world is into airlines business with his purchase of Spice Jet. Kal Airlines is going to be launched very shortly and once that happens we will see a new revolution in this area, with his innovative approach.

Overall Kalanidhi Maran might have just 2.9 Billion listed officially in his name and he is just 342nd in Forbes list of richest men in the world, the rate of his growth is phenomenal and hence the reason for my speculation. I am sure there are many people who might predict it might be Mukesh Ambani as he is already in the top 10 list.

Another important thing to remember that he is backed by his brother, Dayanidhi Maran, who is not only proven to be the think tank for Indian IT industry in the past, but also has been identified as one of the top deal makers in Indian politics.  Having said that, this prediction might change if there is a fallout between the two brothers (I pray nothing like that happens, but we have seen that between Anil and Mukesh) or if the Ambani brothers get together under a single umbrella again (which might happen).

The most important thing to note is that there are rumours of amount saved by rich people under dummy names, but I am not even talking about anything like that. The prediction here is that considering only the official documented wealth, Kalanidhi Maran is on track to becoming the richest man in the world within the next 10 years.

It will be very interesting to track this post and come back and visit it every year. Will try to do the same.

I have posted an update on this below after getting the news about his 17th position in the list of richest people in India:

Kalanidhi Maran is the 17th Richest man in India