Veteran music composer Ilaiyarajaa has sent a legal notice to the makers of Malayalam blockbuster film 'Manjummel Boys' for using the song ‘Kanmani Anbodu’ from the 1991 Tamil movie Gunaa.
The director of the movie Chidambaram shared a snippet of the news on Instagram with another Tamil song Malarnthum Malaratha, composed by TM Soundararajan, from the Tamil movie Pasamalar.
Claiming that he was the original composer of the song Kanmani Anbodu, Ilaiyarajaa said that the makers simply acknowledging this in the title cards cannot replace his requirement of permission/licence/content for such usage. He accused the producers of commercial exploitation and alleged they were attracting viewership and publicity through improper means.
He added that he holds absolute rights, including moral rights over all of his original musical works. Ilaiyarajaa’s counsel asked the film producers to get the music composer’s permission or remove it from the movie apart from paying compensation within 15 days. The notice warned of action against producers Soubin Shahir, Babu Shahir and Shawn Antony if they do not adhere to either of the two options.
In 2015, The Madras High Court had given an injunction against four music labels from monetising Ilayaraja’s musical works. In 2019, the court recognised the composer’s special moral right over 4,500 songs composed by him for more than 1,000 movies between the 1970s and 1990s. Hearing this case in 2024, a bench of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq held that the renowned music composer cannot be considered to be above everyone else. Ilaiayrajaa’s counsel had said that he was certainly not above god but above everybody else.
In 2020, Indian Record Manufacturing Company Ltd (INRECO) claimed complete copyright ownership of Ilaiayarajaa’s musical works and sound recordings in around 30 films. The firm claimed they had written agreements with the film producers concerned. Ilaiyarajaa contended that digital rights came into existence after 1996, and the music company cannot be allowed to hold rights to his work, adding that the musician’s copyright cannot be overridden by the owner of the film. The court passed an order stating that when a song is part of a film, which is a composite work, the producer will have rights to its ownership. This was challenged by Ilaiyarajaa in 2022, when he sought a stay on the operation of the order that permanently restrained him from claiming copyright.
Manjummel Boys, which took Kerala and Tamil Nadu box offices by storm, became the first Malayalam film to collect Rs 200 crore at the box office in just 26 days of its release. The movie celebrates male camaraderie, portraying a gang of young men from lower-middle class background, taking a trip to Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu. Kamal Haasan's voice echoes through the caves and the original song, composed by Ilayaraja, is played several times during the course of the film but it gets most effect in the climax.
It is to be noted that Kamal Haasan, who acted in Gunaa, had met the entire cast and crew of Manjummel Boys after its release and congratulated the team for the success.