PremiumGood Bad Ugly: Ajith Kumar's film might have collected Rs 100 crore, but lands in legal trouble after Ilaiyaraaja sues for...
Good Bad Ugly: Directed by Adhik Ravichandran, the film features a star-studded cast including Ajith Kumar, Trisha Krishnan and Arjun Das
Last Updated: 08.15 AM, Apr 16, 2025
Ajith Kumar's Good Bad Ugly might have been having a good theatrical run and collections at the box office, but on the legal front, the makers have been challenged by veteran composer Ilaiyaraaja for the unauthorised usage of his yesteryear songs in the film.
Good Bad Ugly: Ilaiyaraaja sues makers for unauthorised use of his songs
Produced by Mythri Movie Makers, Good Bad Ugly is a 2025 Tamil film starring Ajith Kumar in the lead role. For those who haven't watched the film, Good Bad Ugly is filled with callbacks and references to many of Ajith Kumar's films in the past, like Amarkalam, Dheena and Vaalee. In addition to this, the director of the film, Adhik Ravichandran, also used three old songs - Oththa Roobai from Nattupura Pattu, Ilamai Idho Idho from Sakalakala Vallavan and En Jodi Manja Kuruvi from Vikram in certain portions of his film.
Following this, Ilaiyaraaja, who is known for expressing exclusive rights over his creative work, has sent a legal notice to Good Bad Ugly makers. Ilaiyaraaja's notice pointed out that the makers of the film did not get any prior permission from the composer who holds the rights to the said songs. In addition to this, the notice also demanded that the production banner pay Rs 5 crore and tender an unconditional apology in writing. The makers of Good Bad Ugly have not reacted to the issue so far.
Good Bad Ugly on OTT
Netflix has bagged the post-theatrical streaming rights of Good Bad Ugly and will stream once the film completes its theatrical run. Besides Ajith, the film also stars Trisha Krishnan, Arjun Das, Sunil, Prasanna, Usha Uthup, Rahul Dev, Kingsley, Roadies Raghu, Pradeep Kabra, Harry Josh, KGF Avinash, Yogi Babu, Prabhu, Priya Prakash, Simran, Tinnu Anand, Sayaji Shinde, Jackie Shroff, and others.
Despite opening to mixed reviews upon its release, the film has gone on to collect over Rs 100 crore within five days and has become the highest grosser so far in Tamil in 2025. GV Prakash has scored the music.
Also read: Good Bad Ugly box office collection day 5: Ajith Kumar’s film on par with Dragon; to beat Pradeep Ranganathan’s film to become highest Tamil grosser in 2025 so far