There has been some opposition to Ilaiyaraaja's decision to take legal action against filmmakers for using his compositions without permission in their movies. Ilaiyaraaja has sued the makers of many films in the recent past, most notably Manjummel Boys, Good Bad Ugly, and Coolie. Some members of the public criticise these decisions, but many also support the legendary composer for making them. The latest to throw his weight around Ilaiyaraaja is composer M Jayachandran. In an exclusive interview with TNIE, Jayachandran said that any controversy around the legendary composer's actions over music rights is unnecessary. He said that many music directors, such as AT Ummer, faced difficulties in the field of music composition, and that it would have been beneficial for them to get some royalty.

"The intellectual property for a song's music should belong to its composer. Even if that is given to a production house, it still remains with the composer," Jayachandran shared. He also opined that if a singer performs any track on a stage, they should give a small percentage of their earnings from it to its lyricist or composer. He said that this is the mandate according to a recent court hearing. "After all, they do not sing an original song they created but rather one from a cinema production. It is the creation of the collaborative effort between a composer and a lyricist."

The composer added that Ilaiyaraaja has the rights to many of his compositions and that the latter himself is the producer for these songs. "Therefore, ultimately, he should be the deciding authority (over music rights). He has all the rights to talk about it if someone breaches the rights."