A new Bollywood film about a boat accident that killed almost 300 South Asian illegal immigrants near Malta aims to show the dreams of those who sought a better life, the director said on Thursday.

Kaafila (Caravan), which was released on Friday, stars Bollywood idol Sunny Deol and Pakistani actress Sana Nawaz.

It cost around $3.7 million and deals with the lives of people from poor countries seeking their fortunes in the west, said director Amtoj Mann.

“People from poorer countries seek to migrate to have a better future. They do not mind travelling in pathetic conditions, even illegally,” Mann said.

“My film is about a group of people who are ready to take all risks to settle overseas,” he said.

The film is a sharp departure from the more formulaic fantasy song and dance routines produced by India’s Mumbai-based film industry known as Bollywood.

On Christmas Day in 1996, hundreds of illegal immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh boarded the Yiohan in Malta to travel to Sicily, from where they hoped to fan out across Western Europe.

The ship sank in stormy seas, killing 289 of the 450 people aboard.

Mann said he researched the subject by meeting illegal Indian immigrants who were deported from western countries before filming the movie in several parts of India, as well as along the Pakistan border and in Uzbekistan.