Chennai, March 19 (TNIE): In a shocking development versatile singer S P Balasubrahmanyam in his Facebook post claimed that he had received a legal notice from music director Ilayaraaja’s attorney for singing the songs composed by ‘Maestro’ Ilayaraja at various concerts.
S P Balasubrahmanyam’s Facebook post reads “Couple of days back, an Attorney representing Shri.Iliayaraaja, sent legal notices to me, Smt.Chithra, Charan, organisers of the concerts in different cities and the managements of all the venues, which says that we are not supposed to perform compositions of Shri.Iliayaraaja without his permission, if so, it is breaking the copyright law and have to pay huge financial penalties and face legal action. Let me say, I am ignorant of these legalities.”
He further stated that his son Charan designed the world tour which kickstarted at SPB50 concert tour in August in Toronto after which they performed in Russia, Lankan, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and numerous shows in India as well.
“I did not get any feelers from Shri. Raaja’s office at that time. I don’t know why now when we started our US tour. As I said earlier, I am ignorant of the law. If it is a law, so be it and I obey it,” he said.
Balasubrahmanyam asserted that the music tour will continue and he will be rendering the songs he had sung for other music directors.
SPB, as he is fondly called by his fans, made his singing debut way back in 1966 for the Telugu film Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna. Since then he has ruled the hearts of music lovers across the country for over five decades singing over 40,000 songs in many languages including Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Telugu. He was also honored with the Padma Bhushan in 2011 and also received the prestigious national award on multiple occasions.
Balasubrahmanyam-Illayaraja is one of the most loved combos of music lovers and some of their hit collaborations include Sangeetha Megam from Udaya Geetham (1985), Mannil Indha from Keladi Kanmani (1990), Sundari from Thalapathy (1991), Anjali Anjali from Duet (1994) and Konji Konji from Veera (1994).
Read SP Balasubrahmanyam’s complete Facebook post below:
Dear all, Greetings from US. Had great shows in Seattle and LA last weekend. Grateful for the love you all showered upon us and the profesdional way the organizers conducted the shows.
Couple of days back, an Attorney representing Shri.Iliaya Raja, sent legal notices to me, Smt.Chithra, Charan, organisers of the concerts in different cities and the managements of all the venues, which says that we are not supposed to perform compositions of Shri.Iliayaraja without his permission, if so, it is breaking the copyright law and have to pay huge financial penalities and face legal action. Let me say, I am ignorant of these legalities.
My Son designed this world tour and wekick started this SPB50 conncert tour in August in Toranto, then we performed in Russia, Srilanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and did lots of shows in India too. I did not get any feelers from Shri. Raja’s office at that time. I dont know why now when we started our US tour. As I said earlier, I am ignorant of the law. If it is a law, so be it and I obey it.
In these circumstances, our troupe can not perform Isaijnani’s compositions from to day. But the show should happen.By God’s grace I have sung lots of other composer’s songs too which we will present. Hope you all will bless our concerts as usual.
I am always grateful for your love and affection.
I only request you all not to have any harsh opinions and discussions regarding this. If this is the design of God, I obey it with reverence. Sarvejanah Sukhinobhavanthu.
(The featured image at the top shows singer S.P.Balasubramanyam)
