Stalin-'uncle' brokers peace, brings the Maran brothers back together—for now

Feuding brothers, political ambitions and a multi-crore business at stake — cinema is full of such tales, and so is real life, apparently. More so in cinema-crazy Tamil Nadu, where fact and fiction often find a meeting point. Throw the media into this cocktail, and you have all the markers of a potboiler.

In June 2025, a legal storm shook the otherwise hushed corridors of Chennai’s political elite, when DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran accused his elder brother, Sun TV Network chairman Kalanidhi Maran, of ‘fraud’. At issue was the way the latter allegedly ‘grabbed’ the shareholdings of the company.

In a lawsuit filed on 10 June 2025, Dayanidhi alleged that on 15 September 2003, when Murasoli Maran (a nephew of late K. Karunanidhi) lay dying in Chennai — he was on life support and passed away in November that year— Kalanidhi fraudulently transferred 1.2 million shares of Sun TV Pvt. Ltd to himself at the nominal face value of Rs 10 per share, at a time when they were actually worth between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000.

Tamil Nadu: A family feud out in public

This transaction effectively left Kalanidhi with 60 per cent of the company, which had been set up as a 50:50 partnership between the Maran and Karunanidhi families.

The Sun group, of which Sun TV is the flagship, is a conglomeration of television channels, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, direct-to-home (DTH) and cable entertainment services, film production and even an Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team, the Sunrisers Hyderabad. The group’s TV channels span all four southern languages, as well as Marathi and Bengali. At one time, it even owned a sizeable stake in Spicejet before divesting in 2015.

Through the lawsuit, Dayanidhi also sought probes by SEBI, SFIO (which investigates serious fraud cases) and the ED for alleged money laundering in the funding of other ventures, including the purchase of the Sunrisers Hyderabad. 

#Moneycontrol Exclusive | Maran brothers smoke peace pipe. Sources say Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin mediates truce between warring brothers Kalanithi Maran and Dayanidhi Maran. The meeting was held in the presence of family members a few days ago.@chandrarsrikant pic.twitter.com/EHRGnkepl5

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) July 9, 2025

With the dispute threatening to become image-damaging, Tamil Nadu CM and DMK president M.K. Stalin — or “uncle”, the moniker given by the local media — first tried to settle the dispute on his own (something he has done in the past too), but eventually turned to Dravidar Kazhagam president, the 92-year-old K. Veeramani, and N. Ram of The Hindu, both of whom have ties with the Maran family.

According to a report in the Indian Express, after at least three rounds of talks, Dayanidhi has agreed to withdraw the legal notice. Kalanidhi has reportedly offered him Rs 800 crore in cash and four plots in Chennai’s elite Boat Club in exchange.

Though this is still not a restoration to the pre-2003 share structure, it is a compromise reflecting present-day power dynamics and personal desires. Stalin’s involvement exemplifies how familial feuds in Tamil Nadu often require both emotional and political savvy to resolve. But in a world where business empires and political clout are intertwined, today’s peace may easily unravel tomorrow.

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