On the 13th (local time), Bloomberg reported that Indian filmmaker Soham Shah filed a lawsuit against Netflix in the U.S. District Court in New York, claiming that his 2009 film Fortune was clearly plagiarized from Squid Game.
Shah claims that his film Fortune tells the story of “desperate people with significant debt who are lured into participating in a series of competitive games to make a lot of money.” It states that the main plot, characters, themes, atmosphere, setting, and sequence of events in Squid Game They bear a striking resemblance to FortuneShah argues that this similarity goes beyond simple inspiration and constitutes a clear imitation of his film.
Fortune is an action thriller released in India in 2009, which depicts the process of characters risking their lives in dangerous games to win a huge reward. The characters compete fiercely to escape their dire situations, and only the last one standing gets the prize. Shah claims that this plot closely mirrors the main content of Squid Game and that his copyright as the original creator has been infringed.
Furthermore, Shah claims that Netflix has continuously infringed his copyright through reality television shows and immersive experiences derived from Squid Gameand is seeking legal action to address these violations.
He emphasizes that Squid Game increased Netflix’s market value by more than $900 million and is seeking unspecified damages, along with a copyright injunction to prevent Netflix from generating revenue through Squid Game related marketing, streaming, merchandise sales and content development in the future.
Since its release on Netflix in 2021, Squid Game has achieved explosive popularity. The drama, set against the backdrop of wealth inequality and human desires in Korean society, tells the story of people who participate in survival games. The game, which involves 456 participants competing to be the last one standing for a prize, features intense deception and betrayal under extreme conditions. The series has achieved massive global popularity, setting records for the most hours watched in Netflix history and winning awards including Emmys for Best Director and Best Actor in a Non-English Language Drama.
Netflix responded to Shah’s claims, calling them “baseless” and stating, “Squid Game is a work created and written by director Hwang Dong-hyuk and we will firmly defend this matter.”
Meanwhile, the very popular Squid Game will return with the second season, scheduled to release on December 26, continuing the story of Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), the winner of the first season.
Source: wikitree
