Acclaimed music composer R. Ilaiyaraaja, on Thursday (November 6, 2025), argued before the Madras High Court that film producers cannot cull out the songs composed by him for their movies and sell the rights “to exploit those songs” to different music labels/third parties.

Appearing before Justice N. Senthilkumar, the composer’s counsel A. Saravanan said, his client neither had an employer-employee relationship with any of the film producers nor had he given them the right to exploit the songs composed by him as they please.

Contending that the remuneration his client had received from the film producers was for payments to be made to the players of musical instruments, sound recordists, and so on, the counsel said, Mr. Ilaiyaraaja had never parted with his rights over the songs composed

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