Old Telugu Songs Costing Producers A Bomb

While they say “old is gold”, almost all old songs are now free to listen to on the internet, especially on YouTube and other streaming sites. These days, many 80s and 90s songs are gaining popularity, thanks to the trend of incorporating vintage songs into various settings. However, with Ilayaraja’s back-to-back court cases, now every film producer has to pay a bomb to use old songs in their movies.

In the other day’s release, Mana Shankara Varaprasad Garu, they used the song ‘Sundari.. Nene Nuvvanta’ from Maniratnam’s Dalapathi movie, which was composed by Ilayaraja. As they wanted to use a song that would suit three different terrains, Anil Ravipudi opted for this song that’s popular in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam as well. However, acquiring the audio rights for the song is said to have cost a substantial amount.

Also, they have used songs like Induvadana, Ramma Chilakamma and others inside the movie. The makers of this Megastar film have spent nearly ₹1 crore to acquire the rights of the songs from the respective audio companies that hold the copyrights. Earlier, the likes of Coolie, Vikram, Good Bad Ugly and Telugu film K-Ramp have used old songs similarly, and paid a bomb to get the rights.

Well, old songs are surely nostalgia, but using them for a film seems to be burning the pockets of producers. In case they pay off with victory at the box office, it’s fine; else, it’s a dead investment.