Hichki

Hichki is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language comedy drama film co-written and directed by Siddharth P. Malhotra and produced by Aditya Chopra and Maneesh Sharma under the former's banner of Yash Raj Films. Based on American motivational speaker Brad Cohen's autobiography Front of the Class, it stars Rani Mukerji in her comeback appearance as Naina Mathur, an aspiring teacher who was rejected by many schools because of her Tourette syndrome until she is accepted at the St. Notker's School, her alma mater. She is assigned to teach students from a nearby slum in the class 9F, which was created by the Government of India to fill a quota for the underprivileged. Malhotra struggled to find a studio to finance Hichki, since the film, which had begun scripting in 2013 after he acquired the rights to Front of the Class, was felt to lack potential for the box office. Chopra and Sharma later insisted on producing Hichki with Malhotra as director. Principal photography was handled by Avinash Arun and took place in Mumbai between April and June 2017, with Meenal Agarwal as the art director and Vaibhavi Merchant providing the choreography. The film was edited by Shweta Venkat Matthew. Jasleen Royal and Hitesh Sonik composed the soundtrack and background score, respectively. Hichki was released on 23 March 2018. Made on a production cost of , the film was a commercial success with a total gross of , most of the revenues came from China. It received mixed reviews, with praise mostly directed towards Mukerji's performance but criticism towards the plot's predictability. She received nominations for Best Actress at the Filmfare Awards, International Indian Film Academy Awards, Screen Awards, and Zee Cine Awards, and won an award of the same category at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, where it was screened. The film was also shown at the International Film Festival of India, the Shanghai International Film Festival, and the Giffoni Film Festival. Plot Naina Mathur, a Bachelor of Education and Master of Science, wants to be a teacher, but is repeatedly rejected as she suffers from Tourette syndrome, which causes her to make uncontrollable sounds likened to hiccups. Despite failing for five years, she is supported by her mother Sudha and her younger brother Vinay, while her father Prabhakar sees little potential in the idea and wants her to take a banking job. Naina eventually receives an offer at the St. Notker's School to teach the class 9F.