Kalanithi stays in his bungalow on Boat Club Road in Chennai. The house is worth around Rs 100 crore - good enough to buy 20 3BHK flats in upscale Poes Garden and Nugambakkam. Purchased from HSBC in an e-auction in 2001, it is surrounded by high walls. When the gates open, you can see huge open space.
He operates out of the 11th floor of Murasoli Maran Towers in MRC Nagar. Kalanithi drives to work in his Bentley (the registration number of all family cars is 1515) and is whisked to his office on the topmost floor by a special elevator. His office is sprawling, and takes up almost the entire floor.
The walls are fitted with several television screens, which helps him keep a close eye on the 21 TV channels in four languages (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada) he runs. His media empire also includes 45 FM radio stations, a clutch of periodicals, a cable distribution network and a DTH company. "Barring Tamil, I don't even know the languages in which we are running the channels," Kalanithi had said in an interview.