“Yes, I am above everybody,” retorted acclaimed music composer R. Ilaiyaraaja’s counsel on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, while opposing an appeal filed by Echo Recording Company Private Limited before the Madras High Court, against a single judge’s 2019 order recognising his ‘special, moral right’ over 4,500 songs composed by him for more than 1,000 movies between the 1970s and 1990s.
“I may sound arrogant but that is what it is... I am certainly not above God but below Him, I am above everybody,” the counsel said.
When the appeal was listed before Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq, senior counsel Vijay Narayan, representing the appellant, said, the single judge had erred in interpreting the provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957. He said, the judge had permitted the composer to exploit his songs, though such a right had not been contemplated under Section 57.
