Ilaiyaraaja; a still from the title reveal teaser of ‘Coolie’ | Photo Credit: R. Ragu and Sun Pictures
It’s no news that music legend Ilaiyaraaja takes ownership of his songs seriously. In a career spanning over four decades, the composer has fought several copyright cases against the illegal use of his songs, and in fact, is currently 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.
Now, in an unexpected turn of events, yet another controversy has erupted. Earlier today, the ace composer issued a legal notice to the production banner Sun Pictures over the allegedly illegal use of the song ‘Vaa Vaa Pakkam Vaa’ from the 1983 film Thanga Magan in their upcoming Rajinikanth starrer Coolie.
Earlier this month, Sun Pictures had released a title reveal promo of the Lokesh Kanagaraj-directed film that featured several tributes to Superstar Rajinikanth, including a remixed version of the iconic track from his 1983 film.
The legal notice issued by Ilaiyaraaja’s legal counsel states the use of the song as an intentional breach of the rights of one of the world’s top music composers. It states that Ilaiyaraaja holds absolute rights, including moral rights, over his work and that the usage of the song without “necessary and appropriate permission/license from author/owner of the musical works” amounts to infringemernt and unauthorized usage of copyright.
The notice demands Sun Pictures to either obtain consent from Ilaiyaraaja for utilizing the portion of the song or to remove the track from Coolie. Failure to do so will result in appropriate legal action, the notice adds.
A response from Sun Pictures is currently awaited. Coolie features Lokesh’s frequent collaborator Anirudh Ravichander as the music director. Notably, Anirudh had earlier composed music for Rajini’s Jailer. Sun Pictures had earlier teamed up with Rajini for films like Enthiran, Petta, Annaatthe and Jailer.
