Madras HC says Ilaiyaraaja cannot claim solo ownership of his compositions

Madras HC says Ilaiyaraaja cannot claim solo ownership of his compositions

Music composer Ilaiyaraaja, the well known maestro of the Indian music industry has composed music for more than 1500 Indian films. Though the maestro is fondly called the Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja by his fans and has over lakhs of admirers for his music, he is often on news for a legal tussle with others. Now, the composer, in an argument with a private recording company, got a case registered officially and the final hearing is out.

According to The Indian Express, the Madras High Court condemned that the music composer cannot claim solo ownership of his work. The statement mentioned that over 4500 songs from the private recording company is a work of numerous players and it cannot solely belong to the music director.

The court also directed that all commercial transactions of Ialiyaraaja with the music streaming platforms will be dependent on the outcome of his appeal over the ownerships of the song he has composed. While the argument went on that if Ilaiyaraaja was the owner of musical notes and the song might entirely be his sole ownership, otherwise it belonged to the producer, especially if Ilaiyaraaja had received payment for it. However, the counsel countered that Ilaiyaraaja continues to have rights to his songs irrespective of the agreements with producers.

In this situation, the Madras High Court questione the composer how he could lay claim over the song when it is penned by someone else and noted that apart from just Ilaiyarraja composing the music, there is also a lyricist, singer and musicians who contribute to it and questioned the composer what if the lyricist also claimed ownership. The court order stated that the case will be adjourned to June and until then the composer cannot claim solo ownership of the songs.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Ilaiyaraaja is composing for ‘Viduthalai 2’. Directed by Vetrimaaran, the film is currently in post production and it stars Vijay Sethupathi, Soori, Bhavani Sre and Gautham Menon in lead roles. The music composer will also be composing songs for the upcoming film, a biography of his own. Directed by Arun Matheswaran, it stars Dhanush in the lead role.

The film has been launched with the poster and the story of it will be written by Kamal Haasan. The biopic will explain the life of Ilaiyaraaja and how from being an ordinary man he went on to compose over 1000 films, 7000 songs and perform in 20,000 concerts around the globe.

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