Director Divyanshu Malhotra says his new web-series ‘Ab Hoga Hisaab’, which touches upon the theme of illegal migration, is not influenced by Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘Dunki’ and instead offers a different perspective.

The show revolves around the life of a recently-deported NRI Bobby, played by actor Shaheer Sheikh, whose life shatters when his brother Bunty (Avinash Mishra) vanishes. His search exposes a human-trafficking ring masked as a Canada immigration network. As he seeks help from inspector Dosanjh (Harman Singha), Bobby battles corruption to save his brother.Malhotra, according to a PTI report from Mumbai yesterday, said ‘Dunki’, which was based on the illegal immigration technique called ‘donkey flight’, helped create awareness about the issue. The movie featured Shah Rukh Khan, Taapsee Pannu and Boman Irani, among others.

“There is one part of the Canadian or the American dream of all those stories that we’ve seen come from Punjab. I’ve seen the advantage that we had with ‘Dunki’ releasing is that people knew that something like this exists (illegal immigration),” the director, known for shows such as ‘Flames’, ‘Sixer’ and ‘Cubicles’, told PTI in an interview.

“‘Dunki’ was a story of people who want to reach there, our story doesn’t follow somebody who is on a donkey path. It is about stories of people who are left behind, like the loved ones end up taking these dreams or all the repercussions when these dreams go wrong,” he said.

Malhotra said ‘Ab Hoga Hisaab’, which is streaming on Amazon MX player presently, is inspired by a mix of real-life incidents and fictional storytelling.

“We found out that a lot of people go missing on the way because within the route, there are certain areas where people are actually kidnapped.

“This is outside of India, between India and Canada, and then people have to pay ransom to escape those areas. So, we just wanted to talk about the risks involved in going through these illegal routes,” he explained.

Malhotra said he was approached in 2024 to direct a show rooted in Punjab, a region he has long wanted to explore on screen.

“I’ve been wanting to tell stories from Punjab for a while. I’ve kind of grown up hearing all these stories. So, I wanted to hop on this project.

“Then the advantage was that I got attached at a very nascent stage so we could develop it in the direction wherein I could bring in a lot of local insights and build a world which looks very lived in and real,” he said.

The show also stars Sanjay Kapoor, Mouni Roy and others.