The music maestro Ilaiyaraaja has issued a notice to the producers of the latest Malayalam blockbuster Manjummel Boys for unlawfully using the song Kanmani Anbodu composed by him.

The notice is addressed to Soubin Shahir, who played a key role in the movie, and the producers of the movie, Babu Shahir, and Shawn Antony of Parava Films.

The song Kanmani Anbodu featured in the Malayalam movie released last February, was originally composed by the Isaignani Ilayaraaja for the Tamil cult film Guna (1991), starring the Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan as the lead. 

Since the release of the movie Manjummel Boys, the song has became viral on all social media platforms and created a trend among audiences all over. In a recent interviews, the director of the film, Chidambaram, shared that he believes that the song was made for him.

Ilaiyaraaja, who holds all the special and legal rights to the song, claimed that the producers of the movie had unlawfully exploited the song Kanmani Anbodu without obtaining any consent, permission, or license from him. The notice states, “Our client reserves the right to initiate appropriate legal action for such improper and unauthorized usage of the song, in the said cinematographic film, which is his original musical work.”

Manjummel Boys, being a survival thriller blockbuster has emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of 2024, holding a box office collection of about Rs 242.3 crores, surpassing the record set by the film 2018. The film has been was widely celebrated by audiences all over the world. It also captured the massive attention of Tamil audiences as it surpassed nearly Rs 50 crores in Tamil Nadu, occupying most of the theaters there. Interestingly, it is the first non-Tamil film to collect Rs 50 crores in the state. Celebrating the beauty of friendship, Manujummel Boys rewrote the song into an anthem of friendship which struck a chord with audiences all over.

Inspired by a real-life incident that happened in 2006, the survival thriller features Soubin Shahir, Sreenath Bhasi, Balu Varghese, and Ganapathi S. Poduval in key roles. The music for the film was composed by Sushin Shyam.