OTT streaming giant Netflix has denied plagiarism claims by director Sohum P Shah. The filmmaker filed a federal lawsuit against Netflix in New York, alleging that the Korean show is a “blatant copy” of his Hindi-language film Luck.

According to a report TMZ According to the report, Shah claimed in the lawsuit that the plot of Squid Game was lifted from the story of his 2009 film, starring Imran Khan, Shruti Haasan and Sanjay Dutt.

Responding to the claims, Netflix said, “There is no merit to this claim. Squid Game was created and written by Hwang Dong Hyuk and we intend to vigorously defend this matter.”

In the suit, Shah, who has directed films such as Kaal, Kartam Bhogatham, said, “The main plot, characters, themes, mood, setting and sequence of events of Squid Game are very similar to Luck., He dismissed any possibility that such similarities could be mere coincidence.”

According to the report, Shah has also filed a suit against Squid Game writer Hwang Dong-hyuk, alleging that the latter wrote his own version of the story in 2009, the same year Luck was released globally. The filmmaker further added that he originally wrote the story around 2006, and the film hit cinemas worldwide in 2009.

Luck revolves around a group of desperate, debt-ridden individuals who are lured into a series of competitive games in which they are given the chance to win a significant cash prize. Losing the challenge means death, and the remaining contestants move one step further into this deadly game.

Squid Game is a Korean survival drama. Its story revolves around a group of 456 participants, all facing severe financial difficulties, 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 the game results in death.

Shah filed the suit around the time of the release of the show’s second season on Netflix, which was scheduled to release on December 26.