The Delhi High Court has upheld an order holding that music composer Ilaiyaraaja did not hold copyright over either the lyrics or the sound recording of the iconic Tamil song En Iniya Pon Nilave.
A Bench of Justices Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla dismissed an appeal filed by Ilaiyaraaja against Saregama India Limited in a copyright dispute concerning the proposed recreation of the song for the Tamil film Aghathiyaa.
The Bench held that under Section 2(p) of the Copyright Act, the term “musical work” does not include lyrics or sound recordings. It only covers the musical component of a song.
On this basis, the Court held that Ilaiyaraaja, as the composer of En Iniya Pon Nilave, could not claim copyright over the sound recording or the lyrics of the song.
The Division Bench also referred to Section 2(f) of the Copyright Act, which defines a cinematograph film. The Court noted that the definition includes the sound recordings that accompany the visual recording.
Therefore, the copyright in the cinematograph film Moodu Pani, of which En Iniya Pon Nilave formed a part, vested with the film producer, Raja Cine Arts. The producer had validly assigned the rights to Saregama India Limited, the Court held.
The dispute arose in January 2025, when Saregama India Limited moved the Delhi High Court against Vels Films International over the proposed use of a recreated version of the Tamil song En Iniya Pon Nilave in the film Aghathiyaa.
The original song was part of the 1980 Tamil film Moodu Pani. It was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and sung by KJ Yesudas. For Aghathiyaa, the song was recreated by Ilaiyaraaja's son Yuvan Shankar Raja and performed by Vijay Yesudas.
Saregama claimed that it owned the copyright over the sound recordings as well as the musical and literary works in the songs from Moodu Pani, including En Iniya Pon Nilave. It relied on a February 25, 1980 agreement with the producer of Moodu Pani to argue that the copyright had been assigned to it.
The company approached the Court after it came across a teaser of Aghathiyaa on social media, which announced the recreated version of the song. Saregama said that the song was later uploaded on streaming platforms despite a cease-and-desist notice.
Vels Films, however, argued that it had obtained a licence from Ilayaraja, the original composer of the song, to adapt and recreate it. Ilayaraja claimed ownership over the musical work and asserted that he was entitled to license it under the Copyright Act.
A single judge Bench comprising Justice Mini Pushkarna rejected this argument at the interim stage. The Court held that Saregama had made out a prima facie case that it owned the rights in the sound recording as well as the musical and literary works in the song under its agreement with the producer of Moodu Pani.
The Court also noted that Ilaiyaraaja was only the music composer of the song and not the lyricist. Therefore, he could not have assigned rights over the lyrics, which formed part of the sound recording in which Saregama claimed copyright.
The Court also rejected the argument that the 2012 amendment to the Copyright Act could be applied retrospectively to give Ilayaraja additional rights over the song.
Since Aghathiyaa was scheduled to release on January 31, 2025, the Court initially allowed Vels Films to use the recreated song in the film, subject to depositing ₹30 lakh as licence fee. However, Vels later undertook to release the film without the song after it was unable to deposit the amount. In view of this, the suit before the single-judge Bench was eventually disposed of.
Meanwhile, Ilaiyaraaja challenged Justice Pushkarna's finding in the interim order that he held no copyright over the sound recording of the song. This appeal was dismissed today by the High Court's Division Bench.
Ilaiyaraaja was represented by Senior Advocate Swathi Sukumar with Advocates Naveen Nagarjuna, Ritik Raghuwanshi, Rishik Agarwal and Shardula Murthy.
Saregama was represented by Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak with Advocates Ankur Sangal, Ankit Arvind, Shaswat Rakshit and Rishab Rao.