Will Ilaiyaraaja's Legal Battles Ever End?

In a season of never-ending politics and polling, the one person who has been difficult to get off the headlines is, well, Ilaiyaraaja.

The music maestro has been the recurring tune, as it were, with his valiant fight to establish his authorial rights over 4,500 songs that he had created over the course of his stellar career that is nearing 50 years.

His primary fight is with the musical company Echo Recording Company and Sony Music Entertainment India (the latter had acquired copyright ownership from the former for a major chunk of the said songs), and has been going on for several years now.

A background to the catena of cases and related legal developments is needed to get a grasp of the whole convoluted saga. 

Ilaiyaraaja's first complaint that he has not been given his rightful royalty was filed with the Chennai police as back as 2010. This was against Echo alleging that it had commercially exploited his music without his permission or approval. The issue between the music director and Echo was not just about copyright violation, there was an element of hanky-panky too. 

Those who have been following the Tamil film industry would know that Echo was founded by Ilaiyaraaja's (then) close friend M R Subramanian in the 1980s. The word from the industry is that even as Raaja just focused on making music, Subramanian came up with agreements that benefitted solely him (and not Raaja nor the producers).

As complaints against him started mounting, the maestro formally cut his ties with Subramanian and Echo in 1992. But agreements that had been stitched before that (Raaja's prolific period) are the ones that are now causing problems. 

The Act Amendment Was The Ammunition To Raaja’s Team

Anyway, the amendment to the Indian Copyright Act (1957) in 2012, which fundamentally changed the treatment of authors' rights with respect to works created by them, provided a sharp teeth to Ilaiyaraaja's battle. 

Till then, the practice in the industry was a one-time payment by producers in exchange for authors assigning the entire bundle of rights to the former.

The amendment, and the subsequent verdict by the Bombay High Court in what is now known as Music Broadcast Case — alert! legalese ahead — has meant that the original authors (like Ilaiyaraaja) get to retain their separate copyright in the underlying works utilised to create derivative works and resultantly, are entitled to an inalienable claim to royalties when such derivative works are broadcast or communicated to the public, with the exception of cinema hall screenings.

The amendment gave ammunition to Raaja's legal team to go after Echo (and Sony).  In 2014, claiming he had not received any royalty through the sale of cassettes, Raaja's team went after Echo with fresh vigour. The court, however, ruled in favour of the company and allowed Ilayaraaja control only over non-theatrical use of his music.

Raaja not only challenged the verdict but also simultaneously went after those who have tried to use his songs without his formal permission.

Among those who received legal notices included director Shankar for his production venture Kappal (they used Raaja's song Ooru Vittu Ooru Vandhu in the teaser), singer S P Balasubramanian (who had not taken permission to perform Raaja's songs on a concert tour to the US) and the karaoke app Smule.

Amidst all this, in 2019 in the case involving Echo, the Madras High Court said that Ilaiyaraaja owned 'special moral rights' over his songs.

However, the court also confirmed the rights of producers as owners of 'sound recordings' in films, prior and post the 2012 amendment. For practical purposes, the commercial exploitation of the music in the version we know it (song and dance) remains with the producer.

No Cheating, Only Heating Of The Issue 

Echo has been arguing that the copyright of the songs is vested with the film producers from which it had purchased the rights to commercially exploit them. The company says it is at liberty to use those songs by giving a licence to music streaming platforms such as Spotify or use it in other films.

Raaja's legal team is of the view that since the agreements were made when such uses (like streaming or used commercially in other films) were not in vogue, they cannot be valid. The agreements need to be reworked taking into account the new possibilities, the legal team of the music director says.

As this is their stated legal position, they fired off notice to the makers of Rajnikanth movie Coolie a few weeks back (they had used his rambunctious number Vaa Vaa Pakkam Vaa from 1983 film Thanga Magan in the teaser.

Now the team of Manjummel Boys, the Malayalam hit which practically rode on Raaja's brilliant song from Guna (1991) Kanmani Anbodu, have been slapped with a notice for using the song without his knowledge.

The strategic use of the song towards the end of the movie elevated the narration to a whole new level, making it the biggest hit in the history of Malayalam cinema.

The thing to note here is that both Coolie director (Lokesh Kanagaraj) and Manjummel Boys director (Chidambaram) have been on record saying that they had formally taken permission to use the song. Chidambaram even thanked Ilaiyaraaja for creating this song about 33 years ago, which allowed him to make Manjummel Boys.

Both Manjummel Boys and Coolie producers have not attempted to cheat. It is easy to surmise that the makers of Coolie and Manjummel Boys have gone by what their legal team advised them to.

They have indeed taken permission but from a source that is contested by Team Ilaiyaraaja. This is exactly where the nub is. Who really owns the rights to this treasure trove of songs?

The music director indeed has a strong case. But he has to establish his rights firmly through the legal route. For that to happen, the fight with Echo has to be won at the courts. But the going in the Madras High Court is a bit up and down for the legendary music composer.

During one of the hearings, the court observed that Ilaiyaraaja cannot claim sole ownership of the work, as numerous players come together to create a song.

Till a verdict is delivered that clears the air one way or the other, those wanting to use Raaja's songs in their films will have a tough time. But which way will the decision go? That is tough to say as interpretations vary, unlike Raaja's music, which everyone will concur to be brilliant. 

Interestingly, this was pointed out by the judge who wrote the verdict in the 2019 case (which ironically has led to the continuing of cases).

The parting lines in his judgement were:  "To the thousands of his admirers, the author of this judgement included, the music of the Maestro was simply, sheer magic. It dissolved barriers, made the incomplete, complete and the world an infinitesimally (sic) better place to be in. Nowhere is this more apparent than from the fact that all counsels who argued the matters, though divided in their interpretation of the law, were united in their adulation of his music."

The judge could as well have said: Idhu manidhar unardhu kolla manidha case-a alla!