Ilaiyaraaja has a right over his compositions: Madras High Court

Illaiyaraaja. 

The film music composer wins a major legal battle

Film music composer Ilaiyaraaja won a major legal battle on Tuesday with the Madras High Court holding that he has a right over the songs composed by him for various films over the years.

Justice Anita Sumanth decreed a civil suit filed by him in 2014 against a group of music labels and dismissed a suit filed against him by Malaysia based Agi Music in 2013.

In his suit, the music composer had sought to restrain Agi Music and a few other music labels from monetising the songs composed by him without his permission.

On its part, Agi Music accused the composer of having breached the terms of a 2007 agreement through which he had reportedly assigned the copyright of his songs to his wife, who supposedly entered into an Sound Recording Licensing Agreement (SRLA) with the plaintiff company.

On August 18, 2015, the then first Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul (now a Supreme Court judge) and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam had consolidated both the suits and ordered a joint trial by a single judge of the court.

Thereafter, Justice M. Sathyanarayanan framed eight issues to be answered by the court in Agi Music’s civil suit and 14 issues in the composer’s suit. The issues included a question as to whether Ilaiyaraaja was entitled to claim copyright of the songs composed by him for movies produced by others on payment of appropriate remuneration to him.　

The other issues were as to whether he could be called the ‘owner’ of the sound recordings in those movies and whether the assignment agreement as well as SRLA were legally valid.

It was also decided that the court would endeavour to find out whether Echo Recording had obtained rights of the sound recordings from individual film producers as claimed by it and whether the composer was entitled to any relief against the music label despite the agreements entered between it and the producers.　

Unlike the process followed in other civil suits where a Court Master records evidence, the first Division Bench had appointed retired district judge B. Gokuldass to record the evidence in the present suits in order to ensure early disposal. 　

After completion of the process of recording of evidence, the matter was taken up for final hearing by Justice Sumanth, who heard extensive arguments advanced by both sides and took on file voluminous documentary evidence before reserving her verdict.

In his plaint, Ilaiyaraaja had claimed to have composed more than 4,500 songs in his four-decade-old career, which had earned him the reputation of being the only individual to have scored music for more than 1,000 movies.

He accused the music labels of monetising his compositions without his permission.