Conventional heroes are passé if a bunch of films with "special" heroes are anything to go by as they ready to hit the Indian marquees.

A slew of Mumbai-based dream merchants are pegging hopes on these "special" heroes, underdogs who go on to triumph, for tugging on the heartstrings of moviegoers.

While ready-for-release Bollywood productions "Pyare Mohan" and "Tom Dick and Harry" are humorous takes on lives of physically challenged men, a sentimental love story "Faana" - of a visually impaired girl essayed by none other than Kajol is not far behind.

All this, even as Rakesh Roshan is putting finishing touches to "Krrish" about a hero (Hrithik Roshan) who gets enhanced senses and special powers as a legacy from his much-ridiculed autistic father.

Whether they have hit upon a winning formula will be known soon. Indra Kumar's "Pyare Mohan" will be released Friday, and Deepak Tijori's "Tom, Dick and Harry" later this month.

Both comedies feature physically challenged men as protagonists. In "Pyare Mohan", Fardeen Khan is blind and Viveik Oberoi is deaf. "Tom, Dick and Harry" has a deaf Dino Morea, a blind Anuj Sawhney and a mute Jimmy Shergill.

Indra Kumar calls his work a comic love story and Tijori refers to his film as a comedy of errors. What is heartening to note in both films is that all physically challenged men are shown leading normal lives.

Hitherto, the comic genre has relied on playing up human characteristics to derive laughs. Using physical impairment for tickling the funny bone is not often seen in Bollywood.

But the Hindi film industry, that has often evoked criticism for its depiction of the mentally challenged must tread cautiously, say trade watchers.

In the recent past, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Black" had managed to go far deeper into the world of the physically challenged than any other film in the past. Rani Mukerji's portrayal of a blind, deaf and mute girl Michelle McNelly and Shreyas Talpade as a deaf and mute boy in Nagesh Kukunoor's "Iqbal", have spurred many clones.

Enacting physically or mentally challenged roles is increasingly becoming a fetish with emerging male and female actors. Even newcomers like Neha Dhupia and Celina Jaitely have done the blind act mainly to romanticise and glamorise the female protagonist's tragic personality and create drama out of sightlessness.

Before "Black", very few filmmakers in Bollywood have dared to take up the subject. The best remembered are Sai Paranjpye's "Sparsh", Gulzar's "Koshish", Rajshri Production's "Dosti", T. Rama Rao's "Naache Mayuri" and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Khamoshi: The Musical".

Indian films that handled mental illness sensitively are not many. Remember Salman Khan in "Kyon Ki", where the lead's illness bears no resemblance to any realistic mental illness; Ajay Devgan in "Mein Aisa Hi Hoon", which tried hard (with some success) to deal with autism; and Hrithik Roshan in "Koi... Mil Gaya", where Hrithik has a developmental disorder about which almost nothing is known, except perhaps that it's "cute".

Most of the films played up mental illness for pathos, trying very hard to make their protagonists earn the audience's sympathy, but came out as non-serious. But recent sublime works like "15 Park Avenue" and "Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara" give rise to hope that there will be more to come.

With over 80 million disabled people in our country, films that are inclusive and feature differently-abled talents might just have an impact on box-office returns as well.

When media involves the differently-abled talent in their programming, they might just return the gesture by raising the level of the viewership.

If "Pyare Mohan" and "Tom, Dick and Harry" are commercially successful and at the same time sensitive - a tough call - we may have a socially relevant and commercially viable possibility here.

Bollywood box-office is already thirsting for a hit, even as summer sets in. Film analyst Taran Adarsh says the low-key response to two of the three films that opened last Friday (April 7) did catch a number of industry men by surprise.

Barring "Shaadi Se Pehle" that got good first week billing in Mumbai, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, the other new releases, "Banaras" and "Saawan - The Love Season", generated less heat, he says.

While many were expecting the business of "Saawan" to get a boost, courtesy the free mileage the film got thanks to Salman Khan's three days in jail, nothing of the sort happened.

The coast is clear for the just-released Akshay Kumar-starrer "Humko Deewana Kar Gaye" that co-stars Salman's current flame Katrina Kaif to make a killing at the box-office. If not, then it will be the turn of "Pyare Mohan" to cool temperatures down.