Karunanidhi family
The fourth generation of the family comprising Arivunithi, Dayanidhi Azhagiri, Udhayanidhi Stalin, Member of Legislative assembly and Arulnithi are involved in the Tamil cinema industry.
[4] Muthuvel Karunanidhi (3 June 1924 - 7 August 2018)[5] was the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK),[6] a Dravidian political party in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Murasoli Maran (Tamil: முரசொலி மாறன்) (17 August 1934 – 23 November 2003) was an important leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party and the nephew of M. Karunanidhi.
He was asked to contest the by-election for South Madras in 1967 and the nomination papers were signed by Rajaji, Annadurai and Mohammed Ismail (Quaid-e-Millath), demonstrating that his political career was not built entirely on his relation to Karunanidhi.
In 2006 May, Dinakaran, the newspaper run by Kalanidhi Maran ran into a controversy when it published the results of a series of opinion polls which showed M. K. Stalin having more approval (70%) than his elder brother M. K. Azhagiri (2%) as the political heir of Karunanidhi.
[22] A day after the incident, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi came to Chennai for felicitating Karunanidhi for 50 years in legislative assembly.
[24] There were several attempts of reconciliation by the Marans, with two public meeting, once during Stalin's birthday in March 2008 and other during May when Karunanidhi was discharged from a Chennai hospital having been treated for neck and back pain.
[26] On scientific corruption and ‘recommendation letters’ The Sarkaria Commission was constituted in February 1976, soon after the DMK government was dismissed by the Indira Gandhi dispensation.
[27] CBI alleges that Kanimozhi was an "active brain" behind the channel's operations[27] and she worked along with former telecom minister A. Raja to get DB Realty promoter Shahid Balwa to circuitously route ₹2 billion (US$23 million) to Kalaignar TV.
[28] CBI alleges that A Raja was further pursuing the cause of Kalaignar TV not only for getting registration of the company from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting but also for getting it in the DTH operator TATA Sky's bouquet.
[35] Dayanidhi Maran was forced to resign from his Textiles Ministry in the central government on account corruption charges levelled against him in the 2G spectrum case.
[37] An FIR or formal complaint has been filed against Dayanidhi and his brother, Kalanithi Maran, the owner of Sun Network in Tamil Nadu.
The general council of 3 February 2012 fuelled heated debates on who should be the successor and finally lead to a conclusion of Karunanidhi remaining the head, putting the topic of succession to a temporary end.
[39] It also touched upon Azhagiri's noteirty and pugnacious tactics for his alleged involvement in Ta Krittinan murder case, for which he was arrested in 2003 and also on the attack of Dinakaran newspaper office in 2007.
[39] There are allegations on a large set of family members of Karunanidhi entering into Tamil film distribution and production on account of political backup.
[4] "Karunanidhi has used his political might to thrust his entire family on Tamil cinema," said Thuglak editor Cho Ramaswamy, in one of the interviews that fuelled a retort from Karunanidhi, "If Prithvi Raj Kapoor’s family is in films till today, if Rajnikanth’s daughter can produce movies and his son-in-law Dhanush can act, what is wrong if my grandsons Kalanidhi, Udayanidhi, Dayanidhi, Arlunidhi and Arivunidihi are into film-making?
It is just another conspiracy by the threaded class (Brahmins) because I work for the Dravidian community" after laying the foundation stone for a colony for film workers on 23 August 2010.
[4] The feeling of political might is supported by the production of films by family members starting ventures, leaving Sun Pictures during the DMK government during 2006–2011.
