Madras High Court Protects Personality Rights Of Musician Ilaiyaraaja

The Madras High Court, on friday, passed an interim order protecting the personality rights of renowned musician Ilaiyaraaja against unauthorised usage of his name, images, and other works by third parties. Justice N Senthilkumar found a prima facie case in favour of the musician and granted interim relief in a suit moved by Ilaiyaraaja seeking to protect his personality rights. The court has also directed the respondents to file their counter. "Since the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case, there shall be an interim order restraining the defendants from interfering with the personality rights of the plaintiff with respect to his name and image, photographs, comical and animated image, voice or any attributes identifiable with him by exploiting it in any manner without his authorisation," the court said.Senior Advocate S. Prabakaran, appearing for Ilaiyaraaja, submitted that the suit was being filed against misappropriating and fabricating his identity in any form on the public platform. He submitted that various media and YouTube channels were using Ilaiyaraaja's images and name for commercial purposes to gain traction and generate revenue for exploitation. He added that some channels were using his photo and making AI-generated content as if he were dancing, which was not permitted. Prabakaran also placed reliance on the recent orders by the Delhi High Court, protecting the personality rights of Raj Shamani, among others. Reliance was also placed on previous orders passed by the Madras High Court, granting similar rights to actor Rajnikanth. At this point, the judge wondered how Ilaiyaraaja could be affected by third parties using his name. "Does your popularity not depend on your photos and videos? For eg, any music which in available on platforms is being visualised based on movie name or actor's name along with the composer's name. What is the prejudice being caused to you by using the name?" the judge asked.To this, Prabakaran replied that some channels were using the name and images of Ilaiyaraaja to make memes, which was not acceptable. He also produced screenshots of several photos of Ilaiyaraaja, which were being published unauthorisedly, thus tarnishing his image. Finding merit in the submissions, the court was inclined to allow the interim relief as prayed for. Case Title: Dr Ilaiyaraaja v. John Doe Ashok Kumar, and OthersCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 432Case No: OA 1091 of 2025 and CS (Comm Div) 295 of 2025

Madras High Court Protects Personality Rights Of Musician Ilaiyaraaja

Upasana Sajeev

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