Everyone told me that making such a film was committing career suicide.

Bhansali recalls, “Years ago I decided to make my first film about a couple who are hearing and speech impaired.

“Doing Black made me realise that we, the supposedly normal and successful people, are insecure everyday, whereas the physically or mentally challenged go through a different, far greater turmoil and are much stronger as human beings.”

Rani Mukherji, who played a deaf, blind and mute character in Black, said the film was an entirely new experience for her.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish, Black and Khamoshi, Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan’s My Name Is Khan, Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par (TZP), Anupam Kher’s Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara and Mani Ratnam’s Guru are just a few of the more recent ones that took the stand that the disabled are actually differently abled.

Barfi! is only the latest in a growing list of Bollywood films that are trying to look at characters with physical disabilities from a different perspective.

For me, it was a given from the start: they (the characters) had to be happy.” It takes normal people much longer to be happy. They find happiness in the smallest of things. “If you spend time with differently abled people, you will get over the notion that they’re unhappy, suffering souls. When he decided to make the film, Basu was sure that he didn’t want to sentimentalise the hero.

Barfi! tells the story of the bond between a deaf and mute hero (Ranbir) and an autistic heroine (Priyanka).

But with filmmakers and actors looking to challenge themselves, the arclights have now begun to shine on the differently abled. Films that were largely successful in integrating this section of the population with the ‘normal’ one were immediately tagged as arthouse cinema.

The physically and mentally challenged have been portrayed as characters that deserve to be either pitied or mocked, but hardly ever simply accepted.

Mainstream Bollywood cinema has always found it tough to seamlessly integrate the differently abled into its plotline.

Anurag Basu’s latest film Barfi!, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra in lead roles, is being touted as one that can change Bollywood’s perception about the abilities of the disabled.

Barfi full movie subtitles