Ilaiyaraaja- A King Without Royalty

Composer Ilaiyaraaja fights for his due, and the industry shows cracks.

- G.C Shekhar

Lakhs of Tamils tune into his music bef­ ore going to sleep. Successive generations swear that his romantic songs will remain etched in the popular consciousness as love anthems. Even today, no live orc­hestra show in Tamil Nadu is complete without at least a dozen Ilaiyaraaja songs span­ning over three decades.

And yet, the 75-year-old doyen recently had to plead openly that he needed to be paid royalties for public performances of his songs. “It is my creation, and when you earn money from that, should I not get my due share from that?” he asked in an emotional video post. He also cautioned that failure to honour his request would lead to legal action.

Ilaiyaraaja’s blunt anger and choice of words had many fuming that the maestro had become greedy in his old age. The outrage on social media was matched only by the silence of other composers, many of whom cite him as their musical inspiration. None of them came forward to back Ilaiyaraaja’s allegation that the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) had failed in its duty of keeping track of his songs being performed in ticketed shows across the globe, thus denying him crores of rupees due to him under copyright laws.

With the largest ever body of film songs—over 1,000 films and 5,000-plus songs—the Padma Vibhushan awardee was naturally miffed at the inaction of the IPRS, and recently announced his exit from the organisation. Instead, he nominated the Chennai-based Cine Musicians’ Union, consisting of film musicians from the south, to monitor his music’s ticketed shows and monetise them. He said 20 per cent of the money would go to the union for the welfare of hundreds of instrumentalists who have lost their jobs with the arrival of digitally created music.