'Luck' Director Says 'Squid Game' Was Copied From His Film, Netflix Responds

Director Soham Shah has filed a lawsuit against Netflix for allegedly plagiarising his 2009 film "Luck" to make the Korean series "Squid Game", a claim the streamer on Sunday said holds no merit.

"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.

According to the documents of the lawsuit obtained by American outlet TMZ, "Squid Game" -- 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.

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.

According to TMZ, in "Luck" "it's only after characters start competing that they realize losing any of the challenges means death -- and that the death of a fellow participant also increases the pot of money available to the remaining contestants".

In the documents, Soham 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.

Soham Shah's allegations come months ahead of the season two premiere of "Squid Game", fronted by Korean star Lee Jung-jae, on December 26.