'Good Bad Ugly' music row: Madras High Court rules in favour of Ilaiyaraaja

In April, musical maestro Ilaiyaraaja had issued a legal notice to 'Good Bad Ugly' producers Mythri Movie Makers for using his songs without permission and sought Rs 5 crore compensation in addition to an apology for placing three classic songs — "Oththa Roova" from 'Nattupura Pattu' (1996), "Ilamai Idho Idho" from 'Sakalakala Vallavan' (1982), and "En Jodi Manja Kuruvi" from 'Vikram' (1986) — in the Ajith Kumar-starrer directed by Adhik Ravichandran.

Now, according to a report in The Hindu, the Madras High Court has ordered Mythri Movie Makers to refrain from "exhibiting, screening, selling, distributing, publishing or broadcasting" the film on any platform, including OTT, along with the aforementioned songs.

Justice N. Senthilkumar issued the order in favour of the plaintiff because the response from the production house was reportedly unsatisfactory and lacked clarity.

In their reply to the composer's legal notice, the production house reportedly claimed that they obtained the necessary authorisation. However, they weren't specific as to who the individuals/firms pertaining to the authorisation were, aside from the nature of the authorisation.

In the past, Ilaiyaraaja had sent legal notices to the makers of 'Manjummel Boys' for using a song from the Tamil film 'Gunaa' (1991) and, most recently, the makers of the upcoming Rajnikanth-starrer 'Coolie', directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, for using one of his songs, citing a violation of the Copyright Act (1957).

'Good Bad Ugly', released on April 10, starred Ajith, Trisha Krishnan, Arjun Das, Prasanna, Prabhu, Priya Prakash Varrier, and Jackie Shroff.

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