Netflix Says Squid Game Plagiarism Accusations Have 'No Merit', Streamer Hits Back At Luck Director

The popular South Korean series Squid Games has landed in legal trouble after the writer of the show and the OTT platform have been sued by Indian filmmaker Soham Shah over copyright infringement. According to a report in TMZ, the filmmaker has claimed that Netflix’s popular series is a copy of his 2009 film Luck. As per the lawsuit, the Squid Game franchise is reportedly straight from the storyline from the movie Luck.

Netflix denies claims by Soham Shah

According to the documents of the lawsuit obtained by American outlet TMZ, Squid Gamez which became the most-watched series on Netflix when it premiered in 2021 is a "rip-off" of the movie starring Imran Khan, Shruti Haasan, and Sanjay Dutt, as per the director. The streaming platform has now issued a counter claim in the matter. They have denied all allegations of plagiarism.
 

"This claim has no merit. Squid Game was created by and written by Hwang Dong Hyuk and we intend to defend this matter vigorously," a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. Created, written and directed by Hwang Dong Hyuk, Squid Game follows 456 players, all of them in deep financial debt, who were brought to a secret play to play a deadly children's game for a chance to win a 45.6 billion won prize. On the other hand, Luck revolves around an underworld kingpin who recruits people endowed with 'luck' from across the globe to take part in a series of challenges designed to test their chance factor, as gamblers around the world bet on them.

What did Soham Shah claim? 

In the documents, Shah also claimed that he wrote the story of the film around 2006 and the film released in July 2009. In several interviews, Hwang has said he first came up with the idea for the Netflix series in 2008. Shah's allegations come months ahead of the season two premiere of Squid Game, fronted by Korean star Lee Jung-jae, on December 26.

(With inputs from PTI)