Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday admitted a John Doe suit (an ombudsman type suit against all and sundry or unidentified persons) filed by renowned music director and Rajya Sabha nominated member Ilaiyaraaja, seeking protection of his personality rights.
The court granted an interim injunction restraining television channels, YouTube channels, music companies, social media influencers and other online entities from using his name, image or any other attribute of his persona for commercial purposes without authorisation.
Justice N Senthilkumar passed the interim order after hearing the maestro’s senior counsel, who argued that Ilaiyaraaja’s name — including its variations in spelling — as well as honorifics such as “Isaignani” (musical genius) had effectively become unregistered trademarks associated exclusively with the composer.
In his plaint, the 80-year-old composer described the scale of his artistic contribution: 8,500 songs, background scores for over 1,450 feature films across nine languages, 1,500 lyrics penned, and over 1,000 songs sung. His background score alone, he said, runs beyond 1.5 lakh minutes — a body of work unmatched anywhere in the world.
The plaint stated that Ilaiyaraaja had built a reputation and goodwill that made him “one of the most sought-after celebrities” in Indian music, entitling him to complete control over the commercial use of his name, image and likeness.
Ilaiyaraaja complained that several online platforms were commercially exploiting his personality rights, particularly by publishing his songs and promotional material without authorisation. Such misuse, he argued, was not just a violation of his personal rights but an “affront to his contributions to Indian culture”, and risked diluting the cultural and artistic value of his legacy.
He asserted his name, voice, musical style, image, photographs, titles such as Isaignani, “music maestro”, “raaga devan”, “Raja”, “Raja Sir”, as well as his musical works, were all integral parts of his persona and enjoy legal protection.
The suit listed multiple YouTube channels, Facebook pages and Instagram accounts that allegedly used his name, image or songs to monetise content without permission. In each instance, the plaint states, Ilaiyaraaja’s persona and creative output were treated as commercial assets, exploited without his consent or compensation.
The interim injunction restrained all individuals and entities, known and unknown, from using his personality attributes until further orders.
