Malayalam movie Manjummel Boys was the talk of the town not just in Kerala but also in Tamil Nadu, ever since it released in theaters on February 22, 2024 and on Disney Plus Hotstar OTT platform on May 5, 2024. Manjummel Boys is currently available to stream in Malayalam and dubbed versions of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages, and one of the USPs of the movie is the usage of the Kanmani Anbodu Kadhalan song from the Kamal Haasan starrer Gunaa (1991). 

While the movie credits the song's original composer Ilaiyaraaja, the Tamil veteran seemingly wasn't aware of his work being used in Manjummel Boys. 80 year old Ilaiyaraaja is big on copyrights and the seeking of proper permission before his work is commerically used anywhere, especially given his long and ongoing battle with the music labels over ownership and such. 

Currently Ilaiyaraaja holds holds absolute rights, including moral rights over all of his original musical works, which would require anyone intending to use his music for commercial purposes such as placing it in a movie, to seek authorization from him first. 

Observing that the makers of Manjummel Boys had used the Kanmani Anbodu Kadhalan song multiple times in their movie, and continued to use the song for their promotional materials in various platforms and media, Ilaiyaraaja has said in his legal notice that this amounts to 'commercial enrichment through improper means'.

The legal notice adds that the credit in the title cards of the Manjummel Boys movie, is not a substitute for permission/license/consent for using Ilaiyaraaja's musical work. The composer has thus asked the producers of Manjummel Boys (Parava Films) to either obtain proper NoC, or remove the musical work from the movie and the promotional activities.

Ilaiyaraaja has also sought compensation from Manjummel Boys makers for unauthorised use of the Gunaa song, within the next 15 days.