Seen Rani Mukerji's Hichki Trailer? Now See This

Mumbai: The trailer of Rani Mukerji's upcoming film Hichki is out. The two-minute-and-thirty-second trailer shows that her character Naina Mathur is keen on becoming a teacher but is challenged by Tourette Syndrome which means she punctuates her speech with involuntary hiccup-like sounds. Rani, as always, looks impressive - but we couldn't help notice the similarities between Hichki and the American drama Front Of The Class. The 2008 film, directed by Peter Werner, was based on the book Front Of The Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me The Teacher I Never Had, based on a true story.

Watch the trailer of Hichki:
 

Now watch the trailer of Front Of The Class:
 

Just like Rani's character in Hichki, actor James Wolk's character in Front Of The Class, suffers from Tourette syndrome. He overcomes obstacles to become a popular teacher and helps many children who also suffer from the condition. In Hichki too, Naina faces similar obstacles as her speaking disorder gets unwanted attention from her students and co-workers.

Similarities between trailers and stories are not new in Bollywood. A couple of months after the release of the critically acclaimed film Udta Punjab (2016), it was reported that the plot of the film had way too many similarities with Ben Elton's novel High Society. Incidents like these have been reported many times in the media, though very few actually end up in court.

There are, however, a lot of studios and producers in India which take the correct route of buying the official rights of Hollywood films and even books. The 2015 release Brothers, starring Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra, was produced by Dharma Productions and distributed by Fox Star India as the official remake of Hollywood offering Warrior, which starred Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton. The 2014 release 2 States, which starred Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor, was based on Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name.

NDTV.com contacted Yash Raj Films, the producers of Hichki, and asked them if their upcoming film was inspired by the movie Front Of The Class or the original book. They are yet to get back with an official statement, which we will update as soon as we receive it.

Hichki is directed by Siddharth P Malhotra, who also directed We Are Family for Dharma Productions in 2010.

Rani Mukerji's Hichki releases on February 23.