Netflix bonanza ‘Squid Game’ is a blatant copy of a film released in India more than a decade earlier… at least according to a new lawsuit.
Netflix is being sued by a man named Soham Shahwho claims to be the creator of the 2009 Hindi-language Indian film “Luck”… which he says served as the blueprint for the hit 2021 streaming series “Squid Game.”
According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, the “Squid Game” franchise stole the plot from Shah’s film … because “Luck” is the story of a group of desperate, debt-ridden people who are tricked into entering a series of competitions in order to win large sums of money.
Shah says in “Luck” that it is only after the competition begins that the characters realize that losing one of the challenges means death – and that the death of a fellow contestant also increases the pot of money available to the remaining contestants.
In the documents, Shah says his “Luck” story also includes wealthy spectators who bet on the players and revel in the high-stakes competition … while the participants themselves fight for survival and wrestle with their own morality under extreme conditions.
For anyone who has seen Squid Game…this sounds a lot like the same plot.
The thing is… Shah claims he wrote his story around 2006… and he says the film version was released worldwide in July 2009 in India, the UK, the US and the UAE.
Shah says “Squid Game” author Hwang Dong-hyukwho is also being sued, claimed he first wrote his story in 2009… the same year that “Luck” was released in theaters.
Shah claims that Netflix had access to “Luck” at the time because of its “extensive advertising and marketing”… so he thinks it’s no surprise that they ended up producing “Squid Game” in 2018 or 2019.
According to Shah, the company’s market value has increased by over $900 million thanks to “Squid Game,” the company’s most-watched series. And Shah wants to secure a piece of the pie from the streaming giant – and prevent Netflix from infringing on his copyright on “Luck.”
We contacted Netflix… no response yet.
