HC refers Ilayaraja-Prasad Studio row for mediation

Madras High Court on Tuesday referred to its mediation centre the dispute between legendary music director Ilayaraja and Prasad Studios here over vacating an office allotted to him inside the sprawling studio complex.

The petition filed by Ilayaraja seeking fast disposal of the case regarding the dispute between him and Prasad Studios by a lower court was heard by Justice V Bharathidasan on Tuesday.

While referring the dispute to the mediation centre, the judge directed that the court be apprised of the compromise arrived at between the two parties by next week.

Ilayaraja and Prasad Studios have been locked in a ugly dispute for over two months— the management has asked the music legend to vacate the premises and hand over the studio, which has been his workplace since 1976.

Ilayaraja has contended that he has scored music for over 6,000 songs from his studio inside the Prasad Studios complex and wanted the court to intervene in the decision by the management asking him to vacate the premises.

Numerous attempts by Ilayaraja’s side to arrive at a compromise with Prasad Studios has failed since the management even rejected the music composer’s offer to pay rent for the premises or take it on lease, sources said.

The popular musician, who scored music for 6,000 songs in over 1,000 movies in almost every Indian language, mostly in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, was offered the place inside the famous studios by its founder L V Prasad in the late 1970s.

Few months back, Sai Prasad, grand son of L V Prasad who now runs the studios, asked Ilayaraja to vacate the premises. However, the music composer refused, and the issue has now landed in the court.

Prasad Studios has been very dear to Ilayaraja as he used to spend most of his time in the studios composing music.

His colleagues say Ilayaraja should be allowed to use his studios through his lifetime as evicting him from the ‘temple of music’ would not be the right decision.