‘I possess only a house and some cash deposits’

“I was paid Rs 10,000 when my play Manthiri Kumari was made into a film by (noted comedian) the late N S Krishnan. He later even gifted me a car in Chennai when I won a bet with him,” Karunanidhi said.

The 87-year-old DMK chief said that the house,where he is now residing,was bought many years ago for Rs 45,000. He said despite his party colleagues’ insistence,he never stayed in an official residence,either as minister or Chief Minister. “In fact,this house is so small that my children now live in separate homes bought by them,” Karunanidhi,whose son M.K.Stalin is the deputy Chief Minister,said. His second son M.K. Alagiri is a union minister and Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi is an MP.

He said he had written screenplays for more than 75 Tamil films and used the revenue earned for philanthropic purposes. He owns no other property other than his house at Chennai. Recalling the birth and growth of Sun TV from his nephew,the late Murasoli Maran’s times,he said when the latter’s son Kalanidhi Maran wanted to run the management by himself,he (Karunanidhi) had received his share of Rs 100 crore. “I was left with Rs 77.50 crore after paying taxes and divided it among my sons and daughters. I was left with Rs 10 crore. I deposited Rs five crore from that towards creating a ‘Kalaignar Karunanidhi Trust’ and have been helping the poor from the interest received on that amount,” he said. “I possess a sum of Rs 5.65 crore as Fixed Deposit and Rs 35.90 lakh in savings bank account,” he said. Karunanidhi said he had earned Rs 21 lakh in 2004-05 by writing screenplays for two Tamil films but had donated it towards the Tsunami relief fund. He revealed that Stalin had himself handed over the money to Jayalalitha,the then- Chief Minister. Karunanidhi added that he had even donated the house he is now living in to be made into a hospital after his death. He said that his relatives had never been given any government aid. Making a sarcastic comment on purchase of a piece of land owned by Tamil Nadu government by a company of which Jayalalitha was a partner,he said he never got any land from the government at a cheaper price. Karunanidhi said he had come from a reasonably well-off family and that was why his parents had sent him to a school to Tiruvarur,some distance away from his native village Tirukuvalai.