What were the biggest challenges and fears about playing the role in And what do you think we must do to be more inclusive towards differentlyabled?

Playing a teacher comes with a lot of responsibilities as it’s one of the noblest of professions. And the fact that I was playing a speciallyabled teacher comes with another set of challenges. So for me, the only way to understand how to be inclusive towards speciallyabled is to treat them as normally as one can.

That’s their only want in their lives. They don’t want the society to look at them in a different way and they yearn to be treated as normal.

And the more normal you treat them, the more empowered they will be and the more normal they will feel. I feel that’s the key to ensure inclusion.

is my favourite life-affirming teacher/student bonding films. What has been your favourite and why?

Okay, I will have to go into the promotional zone where I tell you that Hichki is my favourite teacherstudent film and it’s not just because I am acting in it. When you see the film, you will realise what I am talking about.

But having said that, Black would be one of my teacher-student films because the relationship that Debraj Sahai had with my character Michelle McNally was terrific. Black and Hichki would be my all-time favourite revolving around teacher-student relationships.

How creatively involved were you in the directing/editing process of as you are a part of the production family, too? (Mukerji is married to producer Aditya Chopra of Yash Raj Films, who has coproduced this film along

Who has been your inspiration and do you think teachers are under-paid despite doing noble work?

That’s going to change slowly. There’s a line in my film where I ask my father about his favourite teacher and whether he remembered that person’s salary?

That encapsulates the current scenario. We all know that they are probably underpaid. But the beauty of this all is that those interested in it will still become teachers in spite of that. You become a teacher by choice, but not by chance and that line is true to all teachers.

Being in an industry where you know that there are other professions that pay better, but you still choose teaching for the love of it, because you are born with that instinct is what makes teachers stand apart.

We should probably encourage facilitators of education as they are the flag bearers of change. Hichki is one step towards that.