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Illaiyaraaja’s Name Removed From 'Mrs. And Mr.' Promos
The 1990 song ‘Sivarathri’ was said to have been used in the film without the composer’s approval
Music director Illaiyaraaja’s name had been removed from all promotional materials of actor Vanitha Vijaykumar’s recent release Mrs. and Mr., a report in The Hindu stated.
The actor's production house, Vanitha Film Productions, is said to have removed all such promotional materials after a civil suit was filed at the Madras High Court restraining the production from using his name or personality rights to promote the film.
According to this report, the film had used Illaiyaraaja’s name in its posters hinting that he had composed music for the film. In reality, only one of his songs was used in the film and even that song belonged to another movie. Apart from the removal of this song, the civil suit asked for an interim direction to not sell, distribute, screen, exhibit, or broadcast the movie with the song.
Mrs. And Mr. featured the use of Illaiyaraaja’s song ‘Sivarathri’ from the 1990’s Kamal Haasan film Michael Madana Kamarajan. Mrs. and Mr. released to negative reviews on July 11, 2025.
Earlier this year in April, the veteran composer had accused Mythri Movie Makers of using three of his classic Tamil songs without consent in Ajith Kumar’s latest release, Good, Bad, Ugly. The producers claim they followed due process and obtained rights from music labels.
Ilaiyaraaja, whose career spans more than five decades, has long maintained that composers must be granted “special moral rights” over their work, regardless of music label ownership. His notice also requests a “detailed account of revenue earned from the commercial exploitation of the said works.”
This is not the first time the composer has taken legal action over the use of his music. In recent months, Ilaiyaraaja issued a similar notice to Sun Pictures for using a song from Thanga Magan (1983) in Coolie, an upcoming film starring Rajinikanth. He also took issue with the Malayalam film Manjummel Boys for allegedly exploiting “Kanmani Anbodu” from the Tamil classic Guna (1991) without due authorisation.