“Manjummel Boys,” a Malayalam survival movie, has been in the news a lot, but mostly for the wrong reasons. A copyright warning from Ilaiyaraaja earlier this year said that the film’s makers were using the song “Kanmani Anbodu,” which was written for the 1991 movie ‘Gunaa’ without permission. Recently, Cinema Express said that the directors gave Ilaiyaraaja 60 lakhs as payment.
Ilaiyaraaja had first asked for 2 crores, claiming the success of the movie as an excuse. The “Manjummel Boys” team finally agreed on 60 lakhs, though, after some talks. The makers said they had permission from the music companies that own the rights to the song, but Ilaiyaraaja’s lawyer said that he has full rights to all of his own original works. The note made it clear that Ilaiyaraaja had not given permission or a license for the song to be used.
Ilaiyaraaja said that the Copyright Act of 1957 protects his rights and that it is illegal to use his work for profit without approval and payment of royalties. It’s not the first time Ilaiyaraaja has sent out copyright warnings.
In May, he told the people making Rajinikanth’s new movie Coolie that they were breaking the law by using the song “Va Va Pakkam Va” from the 1983 movie Thanga Magan. However, it turned out that Sony actually owned the rights.
It was also in 2017 that Ilaiyaraaja sent a copyright warning to singer SP Balasubrahmanyam for using his songs on stage without permission.
The producers of “Manjummel Boys” were sued again in May, this time for allegedly cheating an investor out of 7 crores. The case said they did not spend any of their own money on the film and were planning to cheat.
