Ace music composer R. Ilaiyaraaja has issued a legal notice to the producers of Manjummel Boys for having “unlawfully” exploited the song Kanmani Anbodu, from the Tamil movie Guna, in their movie without obtaining any consent/permission/licence from him.
The notice issued through his counsel stated that the song was composed by him. Though the makers of Manjummel Boys had recognised this fact in the title cards, “the same or any underlying gesture cannot be a substitute for our client’s permission/licence/content for such usage,” the notice read.
Since the musical work had been exploited commercially without authorisation and payment of royalty or licence fee to Mr. Ilaiyaraaja, the counsel called upon the film producers to either obtain his client’s permission or remove the musical work forthwith from their movie, besides paying compensation for unauthorised usage.
The notice also warned of appropriate civil and criminal proceedings against the film’s producers Soubhin Shahir, Babu Shahir and Shawn Antony if they fail to exercise either of the two options.
Earlier, Ilaiyaraaja had issued a legal notice to Sun Pictures over the allegedly illegal use of a song from his 1983 film Thanga Magan in their upcoming Rajinikanth-starrer Coolie. The composer has been fighting a long ongoing copyright case demanding “special moral rights” over the 4,500 songs he composed for more than 1,000 between the 1970s and 1990s.
The news comes just days after the legendary composer laid the foundation stone for IIT-M Maestro Ilaiyaraaja Centre for Music Learning and Research which has been set up by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. On the work front, the composer announced last week that he had finished composing a ‘pure’ symphony in just 35 days.
