Kalanithi Maran, wife Kavery remain India's highest-paid executives

Sun TV Network promoter-chairman Kalanithi Maran and his wife Kavery Kalanithi, an executive director at the company, continued to be corporate India's highest-paid executives in FY20, according to a Business Standard report.

The couple earned Rs 87.50 crore each in 2019-20, of which Rs 13.87 crore was the salary and 73.63 crore was ex-gratia and bonus, according to the company's annual report.

Kalanithi Maran and Kavery Kalanithi did not take a salary hike, and recorded the same salary in FY18 and FY19 as well.

Sun TV Network Managing Director R Mahesh Kumar took home a total of 1.78 crore, of which Rs 1.16 crore was the salary and Rs 0.62 crore the ex-gratia/ bonus.

Maran's daughter Kaviya Kalanithi, who is also an executive director at Sun TV Network, earned a remuneration of Rs 1.22 crore in FY20.

Sun TV's standalone total income was Rs 3,653.35 crore in 2019-20, compared with Rs 3,883.22 crore in the previous year.

During a recent investor call, the company said revenues have recovered to 75 percent of pre-lockdown levels.

"If you look at July and the fill levels in August are pretty encouraging. I think we can just say approximately, we are close to 75 percent of the pre-COVID levels in terms of the revenues. So if things stabilise and if the market really opens up, we are very confident of what we have committed to you, that I think in terms of overall decline, it could be restricted to 15-20 percent," S L Narayanan, Group CFO, Sun TV Network said as per the report.