Manjummel Boys Producers Settle 60 Lakh With Ilaiyaraaja Over Unauthorized Use Of Kanmani Anbodu

In May 2024, Ilaiyaraaja sent a legal notice to the makers of Manjummel Boys for the unauthorized use of his copyrighted content. The song “Kanmani Anbodu” was featured in the climax sequence of Manjummel Boys, a film that became a massive success, grossing 241.56 crores and making it the highest-grossing Malayalam movie to date.

Manjummel Boys is now available on Disney Plus Hotstar and has been dubbed and released in several languages, including Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, and Telugu, in addition to the original Malayalam.

When the initial allegations were raised, the producers claimed they had acquired the rights to “Kanmani Anbodu” in Tamil and Telugu from the audio labels Pyramid and Sreedevi Sounds. However, Ilaiyaraaja’s legal team argued that this constituted a violation of the Copyright Act of 1957, as no permission had been obtained from Ilaiyaraaja, and he had not received his due royalties despite the film’s substantial success.