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Chennai, Nov 6 (IANS) Legendary composer Ilaiyaraaja on Thursday told the Madras High Court that filmmakers have no right to sell or license their compositions to music labels or third parties without their express consent.
Justice N. Appearing before Senthilkumar, the musician’s lawyer A. Saravanan argued that Ilaiyaraaja’s musical works remain his intellectual property and cannot be treated as the property of the producers.
Saravanan argued that there was no employer-employee relationship between the composer and any film producer. He said the remuneration paid to him was to cover the costs of the musicians, recording engineers and technical staff, and not to transfer ownership of his works.
He said, “A cinematograph film is different and the music in it is different. Producers can do whatever they want with the entire film, but they cannot sell the rights to a single song without my client’s consent.”
The lawyer stressed that Ilaiyaraaja had never given up the rights to any of his songs and challenged the music label to produce documents proving otherwise.
He also accused current users of his compositions of “distorting and mutilating” them by changing their original tempo and rhythm to suit modern trends.
The submissions came during the hearing of an application filed by Telangana-based Mythri Movie Makers, producers of Ajith Kumar-starrer Good Bad Ugly (GBU), seeking to lift an interim injunction issued on September 8, 2025, that had stopped them from using three of Ilaiyaraaja’s classic compositions – Otha Ruba Tharen, Sakalakala Vallavan from Nattupura Pattu (1996). Se Ilmai Idho Idho. (1982), and Vikram (1986) from En Jodi Manja Kuruvi.
Senior lawyer PV Balasubramaniam, representing the production firm, argued that his client had legally obtained the rights to use those songs from various music labels, paying between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 40 lakh for each.
He said that despite working in good faith, the company is now suffering financially due to the prohibitory order.
Lawyers representing the music labels claimed that they had acquired the rights from major studios such as AVM Productions decades ago, and that Ilaiyaraaja had not signed any agreements preventing him from selling the rights to those producers. He argued that if the composer had a complaint, it should be directed against the original filmmakers, not the label or subsequent users.
In response, Saravanan insisted that anyone wishing to use Ilaiyaraaja’s songs would have to seek his direct permission.
He said, “If others have been duped into paying music labels without verifying their ownership, that is not my client’s problem.” After hearing all the parties, Justice Senthilkumar reserved the order on the petition to lift the injunction.
–IANS
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