Ilaiyaraaja and producers of Tamil movies Good Bad Ugly, Dude reach compromise after payment of ₹50 lakh

Mythri Movie Makers, the producers of Ajith Kumar-starrer Good Bad Ugly and Pradeep Ranganathan-starrer Dude, have entered into a compromise with acclaimed musician R. Ilaiyaraaja over the use of his old songs in the two movies released this year. The compromise has been reached on payment of ₹50 lakh to the composer as a “commercial settlement and gratitude.”
A joint memo of compromise filed before Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Wednesday (December 3, 2025) read that the Hyderabad-based production house had already paid ₹50 lakh to Mr. Ilaiyaraaja through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) after deducting 10% towards Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) for having used three of his old songs in ‘Good Bad Ugly’ and two more in ‘Dude.’
Terms of compromise
The parties had also agreed that the two songs used in ’Dude’ would continue to feature in the movie that is currently being streamed in an Over the Top (OTT) platform, but the producers would desist from using three other songs in ‘Good Bad Ugly’ in future. Yet, the money was being paid to the composer for having used those three songs until the court granted an interim injunction on September 8 this year.
Mr. Ilaiyaraaja had also agreed to make a public statement regarding the compromise reached between him and the production firm. Represented by senior counsel S. Prabakaran, the musician had initially filed a civil suit against the production house for having used three songs, that were composed by him between 1982 and 1996 for three different Tamil movies, in ‘Good Bad Ugly’ without obtaining his consent.
The dispute
The court was told that Mythri Movie Makers had used the Tamil song Otha Ruba Tharen from the 1996 movie Nattupura Pattu featuring actor Sivakumar, the song Ilamai Idho Idho from Kamal Haasan-starrer 1982 flick Sakalakala Vallavan and the song En Jodi Manja Kuruvi from the 1986 movie Vikram, also starring Mr. Haasan without approaching him for his consent to exploit those songs commercially in ‘Good Bad Ugly.’
Subsequently, he filed another suit complaining that the production house appeared to be in the habit of unauthorised use of his songs and that it had once again used two more songs — Nooru Varusham from the 1990 Rajinikanth-starrer Panakkaran and Karutha Machan from the 1991 Sukanya-starrer Pudhu Nellu Pudhu Naathu — in the latest movie ‘Dude.’
The court had granted an interim injunction in favour of Mr. Ilaiyaraaja in the second suit too. However, now, the joint compromise memo stated that the parties intend to end the dispute amicably and that both the civil suits could be decreed in terms of the compromise memo.