New Delhi:

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. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

News agency ANI has sued Netflix Inc and producers of an Indian series about a plane hijack, asking for four episodes to be taken down as they used ANI content without permission, ANI’s lawyer told Reuters on Monday.

The series, called “IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack” – a fictionalised version of the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight 814 from Kathmandu – has been embroiled in controversy since its release last month.

Social media users and members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party have criticised the show for what they said was an incorrect portrayal of the hijackers as Hindus with Hindu names when they were Muslims.

Netflix added new disclaimers to the six-episode show last week after its officials were summoned by the information and broadcasting ministry. It also said the code names used in the series reflected those used during the actual event.

“They have used copyright archival footage of ANI without licence, they have also used the (ANI) trademark,” Sidhant Kumar, counsel for ANI, said.

“Since the series has come into such criticism, our trademark and brandname are being tarnished,” Mr Kumar said, adding that ANI wants Netflix to take down four episodes where its content has been used.

The Delhi High Court had agreed to hear the case and sought the response of Netflix, he said.

There was no immediate response from Netflix to a request for comment from Reuters, which has a minority stake in ANI.

India blames Pakistan and Pakistan-based terrorist groups for the December 1999 hijack, which was resolved after New Delhi freed three terrorists, including Masood Azhar, the head of one such group.

New Delhi:

Amid the controversy surrounding the Netflix series ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’, which tells the story of the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 by Pakistan-based terror outfit Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in 1999, Anil Sharma, who was present in the hijacked Airbus aircraft as chief steward, and saw the series of events unfolding in front of his eyes, said on Tuesday that some of the scenes in the web series are fictitious.

After the series was released, several social media users accused its creators — Anubhav Sinha and Trishant Srivastava — of changing the names of two hijackers to ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’, thus hurting Hindu sentiments.

Interacting with IANS about the controversy, Mr Sharma said the names — Bhola and Shankar — of two hijackers presented in the web series are ‘imaginary’, and not their real names.

“That (actual identities) should have been highlighted. The intent of the makers of web series did not seem good to me. No crew member was injured or stabbed. The hijackers also never slapped any air hostess,” he told IANS.

Mr Sharma said that he realised the seriousness of the situation only after he and his colleague were asked to ‘handle a body’ (to dispose) at the Dubai airport. He was referring to a passenger who was stabbed by the hijackers.

“A lot of things have happened… and my remarks are not going to change anything,” he said.

Mr Sharma further said that though it is easy to criticise Jaswant Singh (then External Affairs Minister) over his role in the matter, the latter’s visit to Kandahar “made a positive impact”.

“However, India paid a heavy price after the release of three terrorists. A lot of terrorist attacks took place in India afterwards and Pakistani involvement was also there,” he said.

Mr Sharma also called for setting up a decision-making body over certain controversial scenes so that no provocation happens.

Stopping short of directly criticising the web series makers, he added that everything cannot be measured by profit-making parameters and the conscience should realise that “something wrong is being done”.

Earlier, facing flak from different quarters, Netflix India on Tuesday updated the opening disclaimer for the series to include the hijackers’ real as well as code names.

Monika Shergill, Netflix Vice President (Content, India), said in a statement: “For the benefit of audiences unfamiliar with the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, the opening disclaimer has been updated to include the real and code names of the hijackers. The code names in the series reflect those used during the actual event.”

On December 24, 1999, five hijackers took control of an Indian Airlines flight after it took off from Kathmandu en route to Delhi, and diverted it to Kandahar in Afghanistan after making landings in Amritsar, Lahore, and Dubai.

The Indian government had to release three terrorists — Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and Mushtaq Zargar — to secure the safe release of 154 hostages.

The Union Home Ministry in January 2000 revealed the real names of the hijackers – Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, and Shakir. The ministry also said during the hijacking, they referred to each other by code names — ‘Bhola’, ‘Shankar’, ‘Chief’, ‘Doctor’, and ‘Burger’.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Propelled by the popularity of titles such as “Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar”, “The Great Indian Kapil Show” and “Amar Singh Chamkila”, India has emerged as the third country in revenue per cent growth for streaming service Netflix in its second quarter.

The streamer released its second quarter earnings for 2024 on Thursday and Indian content seems to have made significant strides this year alongside popular international shows such as “Bridgerton 3”, “Baby Reindeer”, Korean drama “Queen of Tears” and films such as “Hit Man” and “Under Paris”.

India and the UK have had especially strong slates this year, according to the streamer.

In Q2, India was the second and third country in terms of paid net adds and revenue per cent growth, respectively due to the success of titles like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar”, which had 15 million views to become the streamer’s biggest Indian drama series ever.

Imtiaz Ali-directed biopic “Amar Singh Chamkila” with 8.3 million views was another major title for Netflix, which also registered success with licensed films such as Kiran Rao’s “Laapataa Ladies” and Ajay Devgn-starrer horror drama “Shaitaan”.

From the UK, “Baby Reindeer”, which has earned 11 Emmy nominations, emerged as the big hit with 88.4 million views. “The Gentlemen”, “One Day” and “Fool Me Once” also spent multiple weeks on the streamer’s global TV top 10 list.

The upcoming line-up for India in 2024 includes non-fiction content such as “Modern Masters feat. SS Rajamouli”, “Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairy Tale” and “Yo Yo Honey Singh”.

In the fiction space, most anticipated returning titles are “Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein” season two, “Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba”, “The Great Indian Kapil Show S2”, the third season of “Fabulous Lives Vs Bollywood Wives”.

Anubhav Sinha’s gripping drama “IC814: The Kandahar Hijack”, “Do Patti” and “Vijay 69” are some of the other projects from India to come out on the streamer this year.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, the ninth richest man in the world, used to fly economy class on flights for many years. This was revealed by the Co-founder of Netflix, Marc Randolph. He also shared an interesting reason for the same and stated that Mr Gates did not consider flying by first class to be of “good value”. 

Mr Randolph took to X, formerly Twitter and wrote, “For many years, Bill Gates used to fly Economy, not because he couldn’t afford First Class, but because he didn’t consider it good value. It’s five or six times more expensive, but only marginally better (and you all get to your destination at the same time).” He also shared a picture of the billionaire working on his laptop while sitting in the economy section of an aircraft. 

For many years, Bill Gates used to fly Economy, not because he couldn’t afford First Class, but because he didn’t consider it good value. It’s five or six times more expensive, but only marginally better (and you all get to your destination at the same time).

In the same vein, I… pic.twitter.com/Cm8HgKlqTS

— Marc Randolph (@mbrandolph) October 22, 2023

He then drew a parallel and said that even though he can afford a luxury car, he does not intend to buy it because his Volvo station wagon “does the job just fine”. “In the same vein, I could afford a really nice car at this point, but I’ve never been a car guy, and I don’t need a Lamborghini or a Mazerati (which I can’t even spell). A Volvo station wagon does the job just fine, and I wouldn’t value the difference. I don’t need to drop $1000 on a bottle of wine at dinner either, since I know I’ll get the same enjoyment from a $35 bottle,” he continued on the platform.

The Netflix Co-founder then stated that having enough money brings both security and freedom. “So what is wealth good for, in the end? Besides providing security, it also gives flexibility. After all of the experiences I’ve had, the most important thing I’ve learned about money is that, once you have enough (by the previous definition), you can choose to have less of it in exchange for choosing how to spend your time. And spending your time doing something meaningful to you…that’s worth way more than a Mazerati,” he concluded. 

Since being shared, his post has amassed 3.9 million views and over 13,000 likes.

A user said, “Wealth for me is the opportunity to invest in founders and startups that I want to see win because they aspire to solve problems that I care about deeply.” Replying to him, Mr Randolph said that he could “relate to that”.

“Money buys you time, freedom and flexibility, that is what really makes me feel ‘rich’,” said another person.

Another commented, “Perfectly stated.”

However, some people had a different outlook on Mr Randolph’s post. “A couple of notes: – when he was flying economy, the seats were probably the size of current “premium economy”. – when you go above a certain level/price you need to be able to appreciate the quality otherwise everything looks the same. This is true for both cars and wine,” a user added.

“Flying economy despite affording better isn’t a flex. Your legs deserve to not swell if you can afford it,” said another user.

A third person added, “Bill Gates only flew economy because Microsoft made everyone in the company fly economy, probably due to Gates trying to save a buck. And he bought a private jet in 1997.”