‘Mrs. and Mr.’ movie: Ilaiyaraaja’s name removed from all promotional materials, Vanitha Film Productions tells Madras High Court

A poster of the Tamil movie ‘Mrs. and Mr.’ directed and acted by Vanitha Vijayakumar
| Photo Credit: Instagram/@vanithavijaykumar

Music composer R. llaiyaraaja’s name has been removed from all promotional materials related to the movie ‘Mrs. and Mr.,’ Vanitha Film Productions told the Madras High Court on Wednesday (July 23, 2025), pursuant to a civil suit filed by him to restrain the production house from exploiting his personality rights for the promotion of the movie.

Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy recorded the submission made by Sridhar Moorthy, counsel for the producer, that the composer’s name had been removed fom the materials posted on Instagram as well as other platforms. Earlier, Mr. Ilaiyaraaja’s counsel A. Saravanan said that use of his client’s name amounted to misrepresentation.

It was brought to the notice of the court that Mr. Ilaiyaraaja was not the music composer of ‘Mrs. and Mr.’ However, the producers had used one of the songs composed by him for another movie and printed his name in the promotional materials thereby giving an impression as if he was their music composer, the counsel said.

In his civil suit, Mr. Ilaiyaraaja had also sought a direction to Vanitha Film Productions to remove forthwith the song titled ‘Sivarathri,’ which he had composed for the 1990 Kamal Haasan-starrer Michael Madana Kama Rajan, from the movie Mrs. and Mr., which was released on July 11, 2025.

Further, he had also sought a permanent injunction restraining the production firm from exploiting his personality rights for the promotion of the movie and sought a direction to the production house to disclose the profits and gains derived from the exploitation of such rights.

Along with the suit, the composer had filed two applications seeking interim relief. One of the applications was for an interim direction to remove the song ‘Sivarathri’ from Mrs. and Mr. and another for an interim direction to not sell, distribute, screen, exhibit, or broadcast the movie with the song.

After filing a counter affidavit to the applications seeking interim relief, Mr. Moorthy told the court that Mr. Ilaiyaraaja had wrongly mentioned Ms. Vanitha Vijayakumar as the producer of the movie though the promotional materials clearly mention Jovika Vijayakumar to be the producer.

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Therefore, he said, the composer would have to file an application to amend the causetitle. He also stated that Sony Music Entertainment would also have to be included as one of the defendants to the suit since that music company had been assigned the rights of the song ‘Sivarathiri.’

Taking note of his submissions, the judge granted time till August 18 for the composer to file necessary applications for amending the causetitle and including a new defendant.

Published – July 23, 2025 01:33 pm IST

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