Music composer Ilaiyaraaja has taken legal action against the Malayalam hit Manjummel Boys producers for using his iconic song Kanmani Anbodu Kadhalan from the Kamal Haasan-starrer Gunaa in their film. The producers, however, have countered, stating that they legally acquired the rights to use this hit song in their movie. (Also Read: Ilaiyaraaja issues legal notice to Manjummel Boys team: ‘Remove the song Kanmani Anbodu Kaadhalan or…’)
‘We bought the rights’
The producers of Manjummel Boys told The News Minute that they had not yet received the legal notice sent by Ilaiyaraaja. But they clarified that they bought the rights for the song from two music companies.
Shawn Anthony, one of the film’s producers, told them, “One of the companies holds the rights for the Telugu version, and the other for the remaining languages. We got rights from Pyramid and Sreedevi Sounds, the music companies which own the song.”
He stated that they acquired rights not just for the Tamil song but for all the languages Manjummel Boys released in. Soubin Shahir, who also acted in the film, and his father Babu Shahir, also produced the Chidambaram-directorial.
Ilaiyaraaja’s legal notice
PTI reported that Ilaiyaraaja served a legal notice to the producers of Manjummel Boys earlier this week. His legal counsel Saravanan Annadurai told the news agency, “Whether it is a tribute or not, when a song by someone is used in another film, it has to follow legal procedures and permission must be sought.”
The notice stated that “it is a settled position of law that where a person is using such original musical works for commercial benefit, exploitation and other business gains, such person is legally obliged and bound to acquire necessary and appropriate permission/license from the author/owner.”
“In this case, the owner of the song is Ilaiyaraaja and Majummel Boys used his song without his consent or any payment of royalty or license fee,” added Saravanan.
The notice requires the producers to either obtain proper permission to continue using the song in the film or remove it within 15 days of receiving the notice. “If they fail to do so, we will seek remedy under the Copyright Act 1957,” said Saravanan.
Ilaiyaraaja’s legal woes
On May 2, Ilaiyaraaja also issued a notice to the producers of Coolie, starring Rajinikanth, directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj. The film, produced by Sun Pictures, used a portion of the song Va Va Pakkam Va from the 1983 Tamil film Thanga Magan, which also saw Rajinikanth in the lead role. He is also in a legal tussle with the private recording company Echo Recording Pvt. Ltd. over 4500 of his songs at the Madras High Court.
