South Indian entertainment industry has been rocked by a controversy involving two legendary names from the world of music.
Legendary SP Balasubrahmanyam has gone public with allegations that renowned composer Ilayaraja has served him a notice barring him from performing on his music in his concerts.
Balasubrahmanyam, who’s currently on a world tour celebrating his 50 years in the industry, wrote on his Facebook page, ” Couple of days back, an Attorney representing Shri. Iliaya Raja, sent legal notices to me, Smt.Chithra, Charan, organisers of the concerts in different cities and the managements of all the venues, which says that we are not supposed to perform compositions of Shri.Iliayaraja without his permission, if so, it is breaking the copyright law and have to pay huge financial penalities and face legal action. Let me say, I am ignorant of these legalities.”
The popular singer said that his current SBP50 tour was designed by his son in August last year. As part of the tour, he’s performed in Toronto, Russia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and India.
He added, “I did not get any feelers from Shri. Raja’s office at that time. I dont know why now when we started our US tour. As I said earlier, I am ignorant of the law. If it is a law, so be it and I obey it. In these circumstances, our troupe can not perform Isaijnani’s compositions from to day. But the show should happen. By God’s grace I have sung lots of other composer’s songs too which we will present. Hope you all will bless our concerts as usual. (sic)
The news also dominated the conversation on social media, where users appeared divided in their opinion.
The value of #Illaiyaraja's music far exceeds the value of his actions. Everyone wants a piece of it – including himself. 🙂
— Karthik Kumar (@evamkarthik) March 19, 2017
illaiyaraja is spoiling his own name;msv and other legendary music directors are really good and humble;it's piracy of course
— Rajesh (@rajesh121186) March 19, 2017
Music is Illaiyaraja but voice is SPB, without eye vision how can we view colour, illayaraja has royalty for his music but not for SPB voice https://t.co/VJntQo2r2N
— MuraliKrishnan (@Itsmuralikrish) March 19, 2017
@dhanyarajendran Ilaiyaraja owns rights but SPB’s rendering can be termed a cover version. Covers are allowed from 5 yrs. of song release dt
— Saurabh Singh (@5Mindfulness) March 19, 2017
Long story short: Nobody’s against copyright but Ilayaraja should have shown some gratitude towards SPB & shouldn’t have sent notice to him.
— Poongkundran (@BarcaRebel) March 19, 2017
True color of ilayaraja is exposed by sending legal notice to SPB. I always believe ilayaraja rode on SBP magic and not viceversa
— Umarikattan (@Umarikattan) March 19, 2017