Netflix denies plagiarism claims, says Squid Game not copied from Luck

OTT streaming giant Netflix has denied plagiarism claims by director Soham Shah. The filmmaker filed a federal lawsuit against Netflix in New York, alleging that the Korean show is a ”blatant rip-off” of his Hindi language film, Luck.
As per a TMZ report, Shah, in the lawsuit, claimed that the plot of Squid Game was lifted from the storyline of his 2009 film, starring Imran Khan, Shruti Haasan, and Sanjay Dutt.
Reacting to the claims, Netflix said, “This claim has no merit. Squid Game was created by and written by Hwang Dong Hyuk and we intend to defend this matter vigorously.”
In the lawsuit, Shah said, ”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 coincidence.”
Reportedly, Shah also filed a lawsuit against Squid Game writer Hwang Dong-hyuk, alleging that the latter claimed to have written his version of the story in 2009, the same year Luck was released globally. The filmmaker further stated that he originally wrote the story around 2006, with the film hitting theatres worldwide in 2009.
Luck revolves around a group of desperate, debt-ridden individuals lured into a series of competitive games, offering them a chance to win a significant cash prize. Losing a challenge means death, and the remaining contestants move one step forward in this deadly game.
Squid Game is a Korean survival drama. The plot centres around a group of 456 participants, all facing severe financial hardships, who are invited to take part in a mysterious competition. The games they play are based on traditional Korean children’s games, but with a deadly twist: losing a game results in death.
Shah filed the lawsuit around the time of the show’s second season release on Netflix, scheduled for December 26.