Ilaiyaraaja challenges exploitation of his songs by producers

Legendary music composer Ilaiyaraaja has brought a sweeping legal claim before the Madras High Court insisting film producers cannot strip away the songs he composed and hand over exploitation rights to third-party music labels.

- HD Bureau

At the hearing, the composer’s lawyer, A. Saravanan, asserted that Ilaiyaraaja had never entered into an employer-employee relationship with any film producer, nor had he executed an agreement that permitted the producers to sell or license his songs to other parties at will.

The dispute centres ona claim that more than 300 tracks composed by Ilaiyaraaja have been commercially exploited without his express consent. The legal filings state that his collaborations with producers were on a principal-to-princip al basis and not under a “work for hire” arrangement, thereby entitling him to retain ownership of both the compositional copyright and moral rights under the Copyright Act, 1957.