Indian movie maker Soham Shah has slapped a lawsuit against the OTT platform Netflix, accusing the streaming giant of copying his 2009 film “Luck.” The federal lawsuit was filed against Netflix in New York, alleging that the Korean show ‘Squid Game’ on the platform is a blatant copy of his Hindi-language film.
The lawsuit details that there is a striking similarity between his movie Luck and the Netflix show.
Soham Shah Files Lawsuit Against Netflix
Soham Shah, in his lawsuit, alleged:
”The main plot, characters, themes, mood, setting, and sequence of events of Squid Game are strikingly similar to that of Luck, defying any likelihood that such similarities could be a coincidence.”
The storyline of the 2009 movie Luck chronicles a group of desperate and deeply in debt persons who are coaxed to become a part of a series of competitive games to win large sums of money. However, to their horror, they discover that the persons who lose the contest have to pay with their lives.
The lawsuit also names Squid Game writer Hwang Dong-hyuk as a defendant, alleging that he had written his version of the story in 2009, the same year in which Luck was released worldwide. Soham Shah also stated that he had conceived the plot of the film in 2006.
Netflix has negated the claims made by Soham Shah and said it will follow the matter vigorously. It also added that Squid Game was created and written by Hwang Dong-hyuk and that the claims made by the Luck filmmaker have no merit.
Netflix has been embroiled in legal tangles and copyright infringement lawsuits in the past. Netflix had in 2023 settled a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by a writer who alleged that important elements of his screenplay called Totem were used without his permission in Stranger Things.
“Squid Game” is globally popular series being streamed on Netflix and created history in 2022 when it became the first foreign-language drama to bag the top honours at the Emmy Awards.
It was one of the biggest launches on Netflix, with a production budget of $21 million and had an astounding viewership of 1.65 billion hours of the show in just four weeks.
Cashing on its huge popularity, Netflix announced in July that the second season will be released on Dec. 26, with a third and final season coming in 2025.
“Squid Game” involves 456 participants who battle it out in a series of children’s games for a chance to win 45.6 billion won (approximately 40 million USD). The game features Wi Ha-jun, Lee Jung-jae, Jung Ho-yeon, and Park Hae-soo. The storyline involves the players who fight to the death for the enormous prize money.
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