Four bigwigs from the media industry feature in Forbes' India's '100 Richest Indians' list. The list, which sees Mukesh Ambani taking the crown of the richest Indian, appears in Forbes India's latest issue.
Among people from the media, Essel Group's Subhash Chandra tops the list at no. 18, with assets of $2.7 billion. Chandra owns TV broadcaster Zee, besides the country's largest DTH service dishTV and the English newspaper Daily News Analysis (DNA) as a JV with Dainik Bhaskar.
Close behind him at no. 19 is Indu Jain of Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL). Jain's assets total up to $2.4 billion coming from a media empire comprising of newspapers (The Times of India, Economic Times amongst others), TV channels (Zoom, Times Now, ET Now), radio (Radio Mirchi), digital (Times Internet) and private equity (Times Private Treaties).
At no. 20 and third amongst media owners is Kalanithi Maran with assets worth $2.3 billion. Maran's the king of southern India owning 77% of Sun Network, the country's biggest regional broadcaster (20 TV channels), 46 FM radio stations nationwide, besides a growing footprint in film production and DTH.
Hindustan Times' Shobhana Bhartia is placed at no. 76 in the list with assets worth $690 million. The media baroness heads HT Media which publishes the English daily Hindustan Times, Hindi daily Hindustan, business daily Mint and runs FM radio station Fever.
