Madras High Court refuses to pass ex-parte interim order in Ilaiyaraaja's suit over song use in Mrs. and Mr.

The Hindu

14-07-2025

The Madras High Court on Monday (July 14, 2025) refused to pass any kind of ex-parte interim order in a civil suit filed by music composer R. Ilaiyarajaa, accusing Vanitha Film Productions of having used the song 'Sivarathri' in the movie Mrs. and Mr. without his permission, besides allegedly misusing his personality rights for the film's promotions.
Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said, no interim order could be passed without hearing the other side and granted a week's time for the production house, represented by actor Vanitha Vijayakumar, to file its counter affidavit to two applications taken out by the composer for interim relief.
Mr. Ilaiyarajaa had filed the civil suit against the production house seeking a direction to remove forthwith a song titled 'Sivarathri,' which he had composed for the 1990 Kamal Haasan-starrer Michael Madana Kama Rajan, from the movie Mrs. and Mr., which was released last week.
The composer had also sought a permanent injunction restraining Vanitha Film Productions from exploiting his personality rights for the promotion of the movie, besides seeking a direction to the production house to disclose the profits and gains derived from the exploitation of such rights.
Along with the suit, the composer had filed two applications: one seeking an interim direction to remove the song 'Sivarathri' from Mrs. and Mr. and another seeking an interim direction not to sell, distribute, screen, exhibit, or broadcast the movie with the song.
When the judge said, it had to be examined whether the producer of Michael Madana Kama Rajan had sold the rights of the song, the composer's counsel A. Saravanan said, Mr. Ilaiyarajaa would hold all the rights over the song and the producer could only use it in the 1990 movie.
On the other hand, the counsel for Vanitha Productions Sridhar Moorthy claimed that his client had obtained the right for using the song from an audio company and stated that a dispute between the composer and Echo Recording, as well as Sony Music, was still pending before a Division Bench of the High Court.
When Justice Ramamoorthy wanted to know how Vanitha Productions could use the personality rights of Mr. Ilaiyarajaa in their advertisements for Mrs. and Mr., the counsel sought adjournment by a week to obtain detailed instructions and file a counter affidavit.