Dimple Kapadia

Kapadia, who was an avid movie viewer, aspired to be an actor since childhood.[15] Her acting career was initiated by her father, who socialised with film-industry professionals and frequented parties hosted by screenwriter Anjana Rawail.[11][36] Through his contacts, Dimple was almost cast to play the younger version of Vyjayanthimala's character in H. S. Rawail's Sunghursh (1968), but was eventually rejected because she looked older than the part called for.[11] After she turned down an offer to play the protagonist in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Guddi in 1970, another opportunity arose in 1971 when Raj Kapoor was looking for a young, new female lead for his planned teen romance. Munni Dhawan, a close friend of Kapoor, suggested he consider Kapadia, having been acquainted with her father.[37][36] In June that year, at the age of 14, Kapadia performed a screen test for the film on the sets of one of Kapoor's productions.[38] Impressed with her spontaneity and improvisation, Kapoor cast her in the part.[39] The film, which was named Bobby, was released in September 1973. It starred Kapoor's son Rishi Kapoor as Raj Nath, the son of a wealthy Hindu businessman, and Kapadia was given the title role of Bobby Braganza, the teenage daughter of a Christian fisherman from Goa. The story follows the love affair between Raj and Bobby in the face of his parents' disapproval of their relationship due to class prejudice.[40][41]

Bobby was a major commercial success and Kapadia was lauded for her performance, which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress (tied with Jaya Bhaduri for Abhimaan).[41][42] Qurratulain Hyder of The Illustrated Weekly of India noted she acted with "natural ease and freshness".[43] Several of Kapadia's lines in the film became popular, particularly, "Mujhse dosti karoge?" ("Will you be my friend?"),[44] and the "miniskirts, midriff-baring polka dot shirts, and fabled red bikini" she wore made her a youth fashion icon in India.[45][46][47] Consequently polka-dotted dresses were often referred to as "Bobby Print".[48][49] Bhawana Somaaya of The Hindu credits Kapadia with starting the merchandising of film memorabilia in India, and Mukesh Khosla of The Tribune said Bobby established her as a "cult figure" because she led the fashion trends.[50][51] In later years, Kapadia credited Raj Kapoor for her development as an actor: "The sum total of me today as an actress, whatever I am, is Raj Kapoor".[15] In 2008, Raja Sen from the web portal Rediff.com ranked her performance in Bobby as the fourth-best female debut of all-time in Hindi cinema: "An elfin little girl with big, lovely eyes, nobody quite portrayed innocence as memorably as Dimple in her first outing. She was candid, striking, and a true natural ... here was a girl who would redefine glamour and grace, and make it look very, very easy indeed."[52]

Kapadia returned to acting in 1984, two years after her separation from Khanna, saying she had a personal need to prove her own capabilities to herself.[17][15] Over the next decade, she became one of the leading female actors in Hindi cinema.[1][53] Her first post-hiatus film was Saagar; a mutual friend notified the director Ramesh Sippy about Kapadia's willingness to return to acting. She considered her screen test for the film unsuccessful because she was "literally shivering" while performing it, but Sippy cast her to play the lead part opposite her Bobby co-star Rishi Kapoor. The film was intended to be her comeback vehicle but its one-year delay meant several of her later projects were released before, the first of which was Zakhmi Sher (1984).[15][22]

Other films released before Saagar include Manzil Manzil (1984), Aitbaar (1985) and Arjun (1985). Kapadia appeared opposite Sunny Deol in Manzil Manzil, a drama that was directed by Nasir Hussain. While speaking of her positive experience during the making of the film, she felt uncomfortable performing the routine song-and-dance nature of the part.[15] Her work was deemed ineffective by Trade Guide, and The Illustrated Weekly of India reported her career prospects entirely depended upon the fortunes of her next few projects.[54] Kapadia received positive reviews for her part in Mukul Anand's Hitchcockian thriller Aitbaar.[55][15][56] She starred as Neha, a wealthy young woman whose greedy husband (Raj Babbar) plots to murder her. Discussing her performance, she said she was "a bag of nerves" while filming, which benefitted her performance because her own state coincided with her character's inner turmoil.[15] She was cast opposite Sunny Deol for a second time in Rahul Rawail's action film Arjun; it was her first commercial success since her return to films.[56][57]

Saagar premiered in August 1985 and was controversial for several scenes featuring Kapadia, including one in which she was seen topless for less than a second.[58][59] The film was chosen as India's official entry to the 58th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.[60][61] Kapadia's performance as Mona D'Silva, a young Catholic woman who is torn between her friend (Kamal Haasan) and the man she loves (Kapoor), won her a second Best Actress award at the Filmfare Awards.[62][63] A reviewer in Asiaweek appreciated the film for its "polished narration and masterly technique" and labelled Kapadia "a delight".[64] According to Rediff.com, Kapadia "performed solidly and memorably, grounding the two male leads and making the film work".[65] A 1993 issue of India Today wrote: "Saagar was in many ways a paean to her incredible beauty. She looked ravishing: auburn hair, classical face, deep eyes, an aura of sensuality. It was clear she was back."[66]

Feroz Khan's Janbaaz (1986), which is about a man fighting drug addiction,[67] became known for a love scene in which Kapadia and male lead Anil Kapoor share a full-on kiss, a rare occasion in Hindi cinema at the time.[68][69] The same year, she acted opposite Kamal Haasan in her first regional film, Vikram, a Tamil-language sci-fi feature, in the minor role of Inimaasi, a young princess who falls in love with Vikram (Haasan).[70] At that time, she worked in numerous Hindi films made by producers from South India, including Pataal Bhairavi, which she detested. She later confessed to accepting these roles for financial gain rather than artistic merit: "I shudder even now when I think of those films. As an artiste I got totally corrupted."[15]

In 1987, Kapadia appeared in Rajkumar Kohli's Insaniyat Ke Dushman and Mukul Anand's Insaaf; both action films that were popular with audiences.[20] In Insaaf, she played the dual role of a dancer and a physician.[71][72] Later in the year, she played Pooja in Mahesh Bhatt's marital drama Kaash. Kapadia and Jackie Shroff starred as an estranged couple who, during a relentless legal battle over the custody of their only son, learn that the boy is suffering from brain tumour and reunite to spend the last months of his life as a family.[73] Before filming began, she called it the most serious artistic challenge of her career.[6] Bhatt cast Kapadia because he was aware of her own marital experience and later revealed that during the shooting she had grown increasingly invested in the story, so much that after a point he could not differentiate her from Pooja as she "became the character".[74] Kapadia's performance was praised by critics.[55][75][76] Pritish Nandy, the editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, asserted: "Dimple achieves the impossible. Bereft of her glitzy make-up, glamour and filmi mannerisms, she comes alive as never before: beautiful, sensitive, intense. You almost feel you've discovered a new actress on the screen."[77] In later years, The Times of India listed it as one of Kapadia's best performances, noting her "immense strength as a performer", and Sukanya Verma wrote of the "stoic determination and touching vulnerability" with which Pooja was played, calling the outcome "extremely believable and sympathetic at once".[78][79] Bhawana Somaaya reported that Kaash had established Kapadia as a performing artiste.[80]

In Zakhmi Aurat (1988), Kapadia played Kiran Dutt, a police officer who is subjected to gang rape and, when the judicial system fails to convict the criminals, unites with other rape survivors to castrate the rapists in revenge.[81][82] Among the first of a new trend of women-centred revenge films, the film was a financial success but polarised critics and attracted wide coverage for its lengthy, brutal rape scene involving Kapadia.[83][84] Khalid Mohamed of The Times of India noted Kapadia's "power packed performance" but criticised the rape sequence as "utter lasciviousness" and "vulgarity spattering through the screen".[85] Feminist magazine Manushi panned its low cinematic quality, including the absurdity of the action scenes and the "ugly kind of titillation" in the rape scene but said Kapadia brought "a conviction to her role that is rare among Bombay heroines" with a performance that is "low key, moving and charming without being at all clinging or seductive".[86] The same year, Kapadia worked with Rajkumar Kohli on the action drama Saazish and the horror film Bees Saal Baad, a remake of the 1962 film of the same name.[87][88][89] She was the action star in Mera Shikar, a revenge saga directed by Keshu Ramsay, playing Bijli, a once joyous young woman who trains in martial arts to punish a notorious gangster for the crimes inflicted upon her sister. The film was described as an "extraordinarily adroit entertainer" by Subhash K. Jha, who preferred it over the "sleazy sensationalism" of Zakhmi Aurat and noted the "unusual restraint" with which Bijli's transformation was achieved.[75]

In 1989, Kapadia appeared as Jackie Shroff's love interest in Ram Lakhan, a crime drama directed by Subhash Ghai. The film was a success with both critics and audiences,[90][91] becoming the second-highest grossing Hindi film of the year and earning eight nominations at the 35th Filmfare Awards.[92][93] She played a courtesan-turned-vengeful mistress in Pati Parmeshwar. The film was released after a well-publicised two-year court battle with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC),[94][95] which initially banned it from screening for its perceived glorification of submissiveness of women through the character of the forgiving wife who is in "ignoble servility" to her husband.[84][96] Other films starring Kapadia that year include Babbar Subhash's Pyar Ke Naam Qurbaan and J. P. Dutta's action picture Batwara.[97][98][99]

In the 1990s, Kapadia started appearing in parallel cinema, a movement of Indian neo-realist art films,[66][100] later citing an "inner yearning to exhibit my best potential".[101] Those films include Drishti (1990), Lekin... (1991), Rudaali (1993) and Antareen (1993). Drishti, a marital drama that was directed by Govind Nihalani, starred Kapadia and Shekhar Kapur as a married couple from Mumbai's intellectual milieu, and followed their trials and tribulations, extramarital affairs, divorce, and eventual reconciliation.[102] Kapadia recounted her full emotional involvement in the part of the protagonist, career-woman Sandhya; her performance was critically acclaimed.[55][103] The author Subramani recognised Kapadia as "an actress with hidden resources" and appreciated her "intelligent portrayal", through which Sandhya emerged as "vulnerable and intense and full of feminine wiles".[104] A review in The Indian Express presumed her own separation might have contributed to her understanding of the part and sensitive performance.[105][106] The film was acknowledged as the Best Hindi Film of that year at the 38th National Film Awards, and Frontline magazine suggested that Kapadia should have earned the Best Actress award at the same function.[107][108] She was named Best Actress (Hindi) of the year by the Bengal Film Journalists' Association.[109]

Gulzar's romantic mystery Lekin..., which is based on Rabindranath Tagore's short story Hungry Stones (1895),[110] stars Kapadia as a restless spirit seeking liberation, Reva, who haunts an ancient palace and appears intermittently in the presence of a museum curator (Vinod Khanna) throughout his work visit in Rajasthan.[111] Kapadia was determined to get the part as soon as she learned about the project and kept repeatedly calling Gulzar and the film's producer Lata Mangeshkar until she was finally cast.[112] To make her character more truthful, Gulzar forbade Kapadia to blink during filming, trying to capture an "endless, fixed gaze" that would give her "a feeling of being surreal".[113] Kapadia has often cited this role as a personal favourite and the pinnacle of her career, and wished she had more screen time in the film.[114][115] Lekin... was popular with critics[102] and Kapadia's performance in it earned her a third Filmfare nomination.[116] Subhash K. Jha described Reva as "the essence of evanescence" and took note of the "intense tragedy" with which Kapadia played the part.[117]

Kapadia played a young widow in the military drama Prahaar (1991), the first directorial venture of the actor Nana Patekar, with whom she would collaborate in several other films.[118][119] The film, co-starring Patekar and Madhuri Dixit, had a good reception from critics. Kapadia and Dixit agreed to act without wearing makeup upon Patekar's insistence.[120] While critics credited the female actors for their work, most of the praise went to Patekar.[121] Further critical attention came her way when she played a principled office receptionist opposite Sunny Deol in the action film Narsimha.[122][123]

In Haque (1991), a political drama directed by Harish Bhosle and scripted by Mahesh Bhatt, Kapadia played Varsha B. Singh, an Orthodox Hindu woman who is married to an influential politician and who has a miscarriage following an assault. The story follows Varsha's defiance of her husband after years of subservience when, for political reasons, he refuses to take legal action against the assailants.[124] According to the author Ram Awatar Agnihotri, Kapadia played the character bravely and convincingly.[125] Kapadia starred alongside Amitabh Bachchan in the fantasy Ajooba, a big-budgeted Indo-Russian co-production that was co-directed by Shashi Kapoor and Gennady Vasilyev.[126][127] Based on Arabian mythology and set in the fictional Afghan kingdom Baharistan, the film saw her in the role of Rukhsana, a young woman who arrives from India to rescue her father from prison.[128][129] The critical response to Ajooba was mediocre,[130] and it failed to attract viewers in Indian cinemas though was a success in the Soviet Union.[127][131]

The release of Maarg, her second project under Mahesh Bhatt's direction, was delayed for several years before its straight-to-video release in late 1992.[74] The film is about power politics within an ashram and features Kapadia as Uma, who works as a prostitute by choice.[132] The critic Iqbal Masood considered it "a powerful satire" with "excellent performances".[133] According to Bhatt, Kapadia's role was so intense it left her close to a breakdown after filming ended.[74] She next played Barkha, a single woman who abandons her newly-born, out-of-wedlock daughter, in Hema Malini's directorial debut Dil Aashna Hai (1992).[134] In Shashilal K. Nair's crime drama Angaar (1992), Kapadia played Mili, a homeless orphan who is collected by an unemployed man (Jackie Shroff). Angaar, and Kapadia's performance in it, received positive reviews from critics but it was financially unsuccessful. Meena Iyer of The Times of India, who called it "one of the most engaging mafia films to have come out of Bollywood", attributed the film's limited audience to its subject matter.[135][136]

In 1993, Kapadia won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Rudaali, a drama that was directed by Kalpana Lajmi and adapted from Mahasweta Devi's short story of the same name.[138][139] She played the central character Shanichari, a lonely, hardened Rajasthani village woman who, during a lifetime of misfortune, has never cried and is challenged with a new job as a professional mourner.[140][141] The citation for the award described her performance as a "compelling interpretation of the tribulations of a lonely woman ravaged by a cruel society".[142] The Indologist Philip Lutgendorf argued that Kapadia's "dignity and conviction, as well as her effective body language and gestures, lift her character far beyond bathos".[143] Among other accolades, she won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance and was acknowledged with Best Actress honours at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival and the International Film Festival in Damascus.[144][145] Critics and moviegoers accepted Rudaali with enthusiasm, and it was India's submission to the 66th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.[139][146] In 2010, Filmfare magazine included Kapadia's work in the film in their list of "80 Iconic Performances".[147][148]

Another Filmfare nomination for Kapadia came that year for her supporting role as Shanti, a street prostitute whose husband and child were burnt alive, in the Priyadarshan-directed crime drama Gardish.[149] An adaptation of the 1989 Malayalam film Kireedam, the film starred Jackie Shroff and Amrish Puri and was met with approval from critics and the public.[149][150] The Indian Express praised the film's "script, vivid characters and powerful dialogues", and noted Kapadia's ability to command audience attention.[151] Mrinal Sen's 1993 Bengali drama Antareen, which was adapted from Saadat Hasan Manto's short story Badshahat ka Khatama (1950), was Kapadia's first non-Hindi project since Vikram (1986).[70][152] She played an unhappily married woman who develops a telephonic relationship with a stranger (Anjan Dutt).[153] Kapadia insisted on playing the role spontaneously and thus refused to enrol in a crash-course in Bengali, which she felt she would be able to speak convincingly.[66] Her voice was later dubbed by Anushua Chatterjee, a decision with which Kapadia was unhappy.[154] Antareen was well-received and was named the Best Bengali Film at the 41st National Film Awards[155][156][157] but Kapadia was dissatisfied with the outcome and dismissed it as a poor film.[158]

In 1994, in Mehul Kumar's Krantiveer, Kapadia portrayed the journalist Meghna Dixit, a rape victim who persuades an alcoholic, unemployed village man (Nana Patekar) to be a champion of justice for those around him.[159][160] The film was a box-office success and became India's third-highest-grossing picture of the year.[161] The Indian Express complimented Kapadia for having developed into a leading character actor with this film.[162] For her performance, Kapadia received her fourth Filmfare Award, this time in the Best Supporting Actress category.[163]

After Antareen, Kapadia was expected to work in more independent films but she took a three-year hiatus from acting, later saying she was "emotionally exhausted".[14] She returned to commercial cinema in 1997, playing Amitabh Bachchan's wife in Mrityudaata under Mehul Kumar's direction.[164] The film was a critical and commercial failure; India Today panned its "comic book-level storytelling".[164][165] The trade journal Film Information said Kapadia had a role unworthy of her time, and Kapadia shared similar sentiments.[164][166] Her next release was the murder mystery 2001: Do Hazaar Ek (1998), which audiences rejected despite a stronger opening.[167][168] Kapadia appeared opposite Jackie Shroff in Laawaris (1999), in a role that according to Hindustan Times did not allow her "much to do except scream"; Rediff.com's Sharmila Taliculam criticised the film for its formulaic script and lack of originality.[169][170] In her final feature of the decade, Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain, Kapadia played Devyani Chopra, the strict mother of a wealthy family.[171] Subhash K. Jha called the film an embarrassment[172] while Suparn Verma gave a scathing review of Kapadia's performance, noting she "wears a permanent scowl" throughout the film.[173]

In her first film of the new millennium, Kapadia co-starred in Farhan Akhtar's directorial debut Dil Chahta Hai (2001), which depicts the contemporaneous, routine life of Indian affluent youth, and focuses on a period of transition in the lives of three friends (Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna). Kapadia played the role of Tara Jaiswal, a middle-aged alcoholic woman, an interior designer by profession, and a divorcee who is not allowed to meet her daughter.[174] The film presents her story through the character of Siddharth (Khanna), a much-younger man whom she befriends and who falls deeply in love with her.[175] Akhtar wrote the part specifically for Kapadia, who later called it "a role to die for" and said making the film was an enriching experience.[176][172] Critics lauded Dil Chahta Hai as a groundbreaking film for its realistic portrayal of Indian youth.[174][175] The film performed well in large cities but failed in the rural areas, which trade analysts attributed to the urban lifestyle depicted in it.[177][178] Saibal Chatterjee, in a review for Hindustan Times, noted, "Dimple Kapadia, in a brief, somewhat underdeveloped role, presents a poignant study of loneliness".[179]

In 2002, Kapadia portrayed the title role in the drama Leela, an American production that was directed by Somnath Sen and co-stars Deepti Naval, Vinod Khanna and Amol Mhatre.[180] Kapadia's part, which was written specially for her, is that of a forty-year-old, married Mumbai University professor who, after the death of her mother, loses her sense of happiness and takes a job as a visiting professor of South Asian studies in California.[14][181] The story follows Leela's acclimation to her new surroundings and her relationship with a young Indian-American man named Kris (Mhatre), one of her students. Kapadia was nervous during the making of the film but believed the tension helped elevate her acting.[115] The film was reviewed favourably by American critics,[180][182][183] among whom Maitland McDonagh from TV Guide wrote: "Dimple Kapadia shines in this family melodrama ... [her] intelligent, nuanced performance is the film's highlight".[184] Reviews in India were similarly approving of Leela and Kapadia's work.[185][186]

Kapadia played the lead role of army wife Sandra Williams in Hum Kaun Hai? (2004), a supernatural thriller. The film opened to a mixed critical reception, but critics said Kapadia's performance and charismatic presence enhance an otherwise weak script.[187][188] 2005 saw Kapadia and Rishi Kapoor reunite as a lead couple for the third time after Bobby (1973) and Saagar (1985) in Pyaar Mein Twist, starring as middle-aged single parents who fall in love and later have to deal with the reaction of their children.[189] The film generated mostly negative reviews but critics concurred the chemistry between the lead pair was enough of a reason to watch it, acknowledging the nostalgic value of the pairing.[190][191] Few people went to see the film; within two weeks it was declared a failure. In 2016, scholar Afreen Khan cited Kapadia's character as a departure from the conventional portrayal of mothers in Hindi films, believing her role to be a modern mother whom daughters dream of having.[192]

In 2006, Kapadia co-starred with Saif Ali Khan and Naseeruddin Shah in the black comedy Being Cyrus, an English-language independent feature and the directorial debut of Homi Adajania.[193][194] Kapadia played Katy Sethna, Shah's neurotic and unfaithful wife who has an affair with Cyrus (Khan), a young drifter who enters their house as an assistant.[193] The film was well-received at a number of film festivals before its theatrical release in India,[195][196] upon which it was embraced by critics and audiences, making a considerable profit against its small budget.[197][198] The BBC's Poonam Joshi stated, "the descent into despair of Dimple Kapadia's Katy is enthralling"[199] but other critics, including Derek Elley from Variety and Shradha Sukumaran from Mid-Day, criticised her for excessively overacting.[200][201] In the mystical love story Banaras (2006), Kapadia played a wealthy Brahmin woman whose daughter falls in love with a man of a lower caste.[202][203]

V. K. Prakash's romance Phir Kabhi (2008) stars Kapadia and Mithun Chakraborty as ageing people who meet at a school reunion and rekindle their high-school romance. The film was awarded seven prizes, including the Best Film Award in the Narrative Feature section, at the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival.[204] It was released direct-to-video a year later and was simultaneously distributed via pay-per-view direct-to-home (DTH) services, becoming the first Hindi film to premier on streaming media platforms.[205][206] At the request of her son-in-law Akshay Kumar, Kapadia voiced the character Devi, the mother of the elephant Jumbo (Kumar), in the animated feature Jumbo (2008), a remake of the 2006 Thai computer animation Khan Kluay.[26][207]

Kapadia was cast in Zoya Akhtar's first directorial venture Luck by Chance (2009), a satirical take on the Hindi film industry.[208][209] She played Neena Walia, an erstwhile superstar—referred to in the film as "a crocodile in a chiffon saree"—who struggles to launch her young daughter into the movie business.[210] Kapadia was approached for the part because it required an actor who had been a mainstream female lead in the past. Akhtar noted Kapadia's edgy portrayal of the character's fickle nature, saying Kapadia is "all warm, soft sunshine and then there's a flip and she's hard, cold, steely".[211] Luck By Chance opened to a warm critical response, though its financial income was modest.[208][212] Critics were appreciative of Kapadia's performance, which earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at Filmfare.[213] Deepa Karmalkar from Screen characterised her role as "gloriously bitchy"[214] while Avijit Ghosh of The Times of India believed Kapadia had delivered "one of her most nuanced performances" in a character he found to be "a rare kind of Hindi film mother" who is "hawk-eyed, tough as nails but vainglorious, and in a strange way, vulnerable as well".[215]

In 2010, Kapadia played the small part of Salman Khan's asthmatic mother in action comedy Dabangg, which was the most popular film of the year in India and the second-highest grossing Hindi film of all-time up to that point.[216][217] Reviews for Kapadia's role were mixed; Shubhra Gupta dismissed her as "laughably wrong" and Blessy Chettiar of Daily News and Analysis likened her character to "the mothers in Hindi cinema of yore, self-sacrificing, torn between relationships, slightly over-the-top, likeable nevertheless".[218][219] Tum Milo Toh Sahi, which was released the same year, is a romantic comedy in which Kapadia stars as Delshad Nanji, a Parsi woman in charge of an Irani café whose business is under threat from developers and who falls in love with the lawyer (Nana Patekar) who represents her in court. Kapadia adopted a Parsi accent for the role and while preparing for it, visited several Irani cafés in Mumbai to understand their culture and get into the mood of the character.[220][221] The film opened to average reviews but Kapadia's performance received generally positive feedback.[220][222] Anupama Chopra was critical of her character, which she said "veers into caricature", but wrote Kapadia "plays her with affection and energy and at least has some fun doing it".[223]

Kapadia's only film of 2011 was Nikhil Advani's Patiala House, a sports film revolving around cricket in which she was cast as Rishi Kapoor's wife and her son in-law, Akshay Kumar's mother.[224][225] The same year, she appeared in Bombay Mittayi, her first role in a Malayalam-language film, for which she started learning the language. She played the wife of a celebrated Ghazal singer, played by Amar Singh, on whose behest she was offered the part.[114][226]

Kapadia at the Pichvai Exhibition in New Delhi, 2018

Kapadia collaborated again with Homi Adajania in Cocktail (2012) and Finding Fanny (2014), both critical and commercial successes.[227][228] The romantic comedy Cocktail saw her play Saif Ali Khan's loud Punjabi mother, Kavita Kapoor, an appearance to which Aniruddha Guha of Daily News and Analysis referred as a "veritable treat".[229][230] While filming Cocktail, Kapadia was shown the script of the satirical road movie Finding Fanny; believing Adajania is a director capable of bringing the best in her, she expressed keen interest in the project.[231] She was cast as Rosalina "Rosie" Eucharistica, a conceited-but-well-meaning woman who joins her late son's widow (Deepika Padukone) on a road trip across Goa.[232] Kapadia was required to wear a heavy prosthetic posterior for the role, and her portrayal earned her a fourth Best Supporting Actress nomination at Filmfare.[231] Rachel Saltz of The New York Times wrote Kapadia "inhabits and enhances her role" and "steers clear of caricature and even milks some humor out of the unfunny script".[233]

In 2013, Kapadia was the protagonist in the comedy What the Fish, portraying Sudha Mishra, an irate Delhi-based divorcee who begrudgingly entrusts her niece with taking care of her house while she is away.[234] Kapadia was enthusiastic about the part, feeling challenged to play its different traits.[13] Reviews of both the film and Kapadia's work were mixed. The Times of India panned the film's script for making "Kapadia's tryst with comedy seem loud and forced", and Raja Sen deemed her part the most forgettable of her career.[235][236] Sarita A. Tanwar of Daily News and Analysis considered the film "a rather audacious entertaining attempt" and said Kapadia was "in top form", and similarly positive comments were written by Subhash K. Jha.[237][238]

For the rest of the decade, Kapadia returned to film twice for minor roles in the action comedies Welcome Back (2015) and Dabangg 3 (2019). She played a conwoman in Anees Bazmee's Welcome Back along with an ensemble cast led by Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar.[239][240] Mihir Fadnavis of Hindustan Times described her role as an "embarrassing, extended cameo" but Rajeev Masand took note of her "droll" presence.[241][242] Dabangg 3, the third installment of the Dabangg film series, saw her briefly reprise the role of Naina Devi.[243]

In her first film of the 2020s, Kapadia appeared alongside Irrfan Khan and Kareena Kapoor in the comedy-drama Angrezi Medium (2020), her fourth project under Homi Adajania's direction. A spiritual sequel to the 2017 film Hindi Medium, it was theatrically released in India on 13 March amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected its commercial performance due to the closing of cinemas.[244][245] Initial plans for a re-release were cancelled and the film was made available digitally less than a month later.[246] Kapadia played a strict store owner estranged from her daughter (Kapoor), a role Vinayak Chakravorty of Outlook thought was "used to highlight loneliness among the aged" but believed could have been stronger.[247][248]

Kapadia next played arms dealer Priya Singh in Christopher Nolan's spy thriller Tenet.[249] Her screen test for the role was shot in 2019 by Adajania before filming for Angrezi Medium began, followed by an audition for Nolan in Mumbai.[250][251] Impressed with her charisma and poise, Nolan, believing she embodied his vision of the character, cast Kapadia in the part.[252] The film opened amid the pandemic to a worldwide audience and, having grossed $364 million worldwide, became the fifth-highest grossing film of 2020.[253][254] Critics reacted positively to her performance;[255] Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times wrote Kapadia "quietly steals every scene she's in" and Guy Lodge of Variety said she had given the film's "wiliest performance".[249][256] Having admitted to being a reluctant actor for years, Kapadia credited Tenet with restoring her passion for film acting.[255][257]

Ali Abbas Zafar's 2021 Amazon Prime political web series Tandav starred Kapadia as Anuradha Kishore, a power-hungry politician who seeks to undermine the new political rival (Saif Ali Khan) of the Prime Minister of India, her longtime ally.[258][259] The show, which was Kapadia's first appearance on a digital platform, opened to mixed reviews.[260] A Thursday (2022), Behzad Khambata's vigilante-hostage thriller starring Yami Gautam, features Kapadia in the fictional part of Prime Minister of India Maya Rajguru.[261][262] As of February 2022, Kapadia's future projects include Ayan Mukerji's action fantasy Brahmāstra and Dinesh Vijan's untitled comedy.[263] Among other projects, she will appear in Pathan led by Shah Rukh Khan and star opposite Pankaj Kapur in Saurabh Shukla's Jab Khuli Kitaab, a romantic comedy about an older couple who seek divorce after 50 years of marriage.[264][265]