Indian filmmaker accuses Netflix of copying his movie for Squid Game series

By Chris Dolmetsch

Netflix Inc. was accused by an Indian filmmaker of copying his 2009 movie for its popular Squid Game series as the company prepares to release the second season of the show later this year.

The filmmaker, Soham Shah, sued Netflix in federal court in New York on Friday, alleging that the show is a “blatant rip-off” of his Hindi-language film Luck, which tells the story of a “group of desperate, indebted people enticed to take part in a series of competitive games to win large sums of money” who later learn that losing the contests means death.

“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,” Shah said in the suit.

Squid Game made history in 2022 as the first foreign-language drama to win top honors at the Emmy Awards. The series was Netflix’s biggest launch ever, costing $21 million to produce, and viewers watched 1.65 billion hours of the show in just four weeks. It remained one of the service’s top shows for months and Netflix announced in July that the second season will be released on Dec. 26, with a third and final season coming in 2025.

“This claim has no merit,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. “Squid Game was created by and written by Hwang Dong Hyuk and we intend to defend this matter vigorously.”

It’s not the first time Netflix has faced copyright claims over some of its most popular content. In August 2023, the Los Gatos, California-based company settled a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by a writer who claimed key elements of his earlier screenplay called Totem were used without his permission in Stranger Things.

Shah says that Netflix continues to infringe his copyrights for Luck with works derived from Squid Game, including a reality TV competition and an immersive experience set to launch in New York City next month. He says the show increased Netflix’s market value by more than $900 million.

Shah is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction preventing Netflix from infringing his copyrights by marketing and streaming Squid Game, profiting from the sale of merchandise and developing other shows and works that may infringe the copyrights in the future.

The case is Shah v Netflix Inc., 24-cv-6925, US District Court, Southern District of New York.