Ilaiyaraaja lashes out at '96' makers for using his music in the movie

Director C. Prem Kumar's 96 was arguably one of the finest movies to come out of Kollywood in the recent times. Starring Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha Krishnan in the lead roles as Ram and Janu, the high school sweethearts who are united for a precious few hours after a class reunion, tugged at the heartstrings of the audience and found favour with the critics. The movie received high praise for the acting, music and the accurate depiction of school days in the late 90s.

Now, music composer Ilaiyaraaja, who is known to not mince his words when it comes to the ownership of his music, lashed out at the makers of 96 at an interview. According to The News Minute, Ilaiyaraaja in an interview with Cinema Express, took objection to movie makers and music composers using his music to recreate the feel and mood of a bygone period.

When Ilaiyaraaja was told about his songs being sung by the heroine in 96, the music composer was displeased. "This is very wrong. Just because a story takes place during a particular period, it is not necessary for them to use songs from that time. Wherever they don’t have the capability, they tend to use an already popular song. Reason is that they don't have the stuff to create equivalently good songs," he said, reports The News Minute.

Further, he cited the example of music director R.D. Burman, who, for the 1973 movie Yaadon Ki Baaraat, chose to compose a song that suited a particular time period referred in the movie instead of opting to use a song from that period and said, "Burman could’ve used any composer’s song from 20 years ago. He didn’t."

However, the director of 96 reportedly clarified that proper procedures were followed while using Ilaiyaraaja's music in his movie.