Dimple Kapadia

At 66 years old, Dimple Kapadia has this physical status:

Dimple Kapadia (born 8 June 1957) is an Indian film actress who mainly appears in Hindi films.

She was introduced by Raj Kapoor at the age of 16, starring a leading role in his teen romance Bobby (1973).

She married Indian actor Rajesh Khanna and then resigned from acting in the same year.

Following her exile from Khanna, Kapadia returned to film in 1984.

The drama Saagar (1985), one of her period's films, was one of her favorites.

Both Bobby and Saagar were nominated for Best Actress at the Filmfare Award.

Kapadia began to establish herself as one of India's top actresses in the 1980s, avoiding being stereotyped and expanding her cast list.

She has since appeared in a number of film genres, from mainstream to parallel cinema, and has received a National Film Award for Best Actress and a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress.

She continued her acting in Gardish (1993) and Krantiveer (1994), the latter of which earned her her fourth Filmfare Award. Kapadia continued to work infrequently into the 1990s and the 2000s.

She appeared in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and was recognized for her portrayal of the title role in American film Leela (2002).

Hum Kaun Hai has a leading role in several of her later film roles. Pyaar Mein Twist (2004), Phir Kabhi (2008), and Tum Milo Toh Sahi (2010), as well as supporting roles in Being Cyrus (2004), Luck by Chance (2009), Dabangg (2010), Finding Fanny (2014).

Kapadia is the mother of Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna, both former actresses.

Background and personal life

Dimple Kapadia was born in Bombay on June 8, 1957 to Gujarati businessman Chunibhai Kapadia and his partner Bitti, who were affectionately known as "Betty." Chunibhai was born from a wealthy Ismaili Khoja family, whose members had "embraced Hinduism" while still referring to Aga Khan as their religious mentor, even as a novice. Bitti was a vivacious Ismaili. Dimple was born with the name Ameena (literally, "honest" or "trustworthy") in Arabic, by Aga Khan III, which she never related to. She is the eldest of four children; her siblings, as well as an actor, were Simple (also an actor) and Reem, as well as Suhail's brother.

Kapadia attended St Joseph's Convent High School in Santacruz, Bombay's suburb. She characterized herself as having grown up quickly, and she had children with children older than herself. When she was cast in her first film Bobby in 1971, her father was rejected by his conservative family. After a brief courtship, she married actor Rajesh Khanna at age 15, then aged 30. She later said that the wedding was the "biggest high" of her life during this time. It was held in Juhu's bungalow on 27 March 1973, six months before Bobby's release. Kapadia stopped acting at her husband's behest after the marriage. Twinkle (born 1974) and Rinke (born 1977), she gave birth to two children.

Kapadia deviated from Khanna in April 1982 and returned with her two children to her parents' house. She returned to acting two years later. "The life and joy in our house came to an end the day I and Rajesh got married," she said, citing poverty and her husband's infidelity in their early marital encounters, which culminated in divorce and marital union "a farce." Khanna and Kapadia, who had never officially divorced, were seen together at parties; although not having ever reunited, Kapadia appeared opposite Khanna in his unreleased film Jai Shiv Shankar in 1990 and campaigned for his election to the Indian National Congress a year later. After settling down, her daughters became actors and retired. Twinkle's elder daughter Twinkle is married to actor Akshay Kumar. When asked in Filmfare in 2000 if she would remarry, Kapadia said, "I'm very happy and content... it was more than enough." Khanna became sick in early 2012, but Kapadia stayed by his side and took care of him until his death on July 18th. She was with him when he died and said his death, as well as her sister Simple and her brother's deaths, left her feeling "completely abandoned."

Kapadia is an art lover who has experimented with painting and sculpture. In 1998, she founded The Faraway Tree, a new company that sells candles that she designs. She went to Wales to speak with Blackwood-based candle artist David Constable after being inspired by candle-making therapeutically. Kapadia's business venture has inspired other candle enthusiasts to start similar ventures, according to the Indian press. At a number of exhibits, her candles were displayed and sold for purchase.

Source

Career

Kapadia, a devoted movie buff, aspired to be an actor from childhood. Her father, who worked with film-industry executives and attended Anjana Rawail's frequented parties, launched her acting career. Dimple was nearly cast to appear in the younger version of Vyjayanthimala's character in H.S. Rawail's Sunghursh (1968), but she was eventually refused because she appeared older than the role was needed. After turning down an invitation to appear in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Guddi in 1970, Raj Kapoor's second chance arose in 1971, when she was searching for a young, new female lead for his planned teen romance. Munni Dhawan, a close friend of Kapoor, suggested that she consider Kapadia because she was familiar with her father. Kapadia did a screen test for the film on the set of one of Kapoor's productions in June this year, at the age of 14. Kapoor portrayed her in the role, impressed with her spontaneity and improvisation. In September 1973, Bobby, the film, which was named Bobby, was released. Kapoor's son Raj Nath, the son of a wealthy Hindu businessman, was cast in the film, and Kapadia's Bobby Braganza, the teenage daughter of a Christian fisherman from Goa, was given the title role. In the face of his parents' disapproval of their marriage due to class mistrust, the story follows Raj and Bobby's love affair.

Bobby was a huge commercial success, and Kapadia was lauded for her work, which culminated in the Filmfare Award for Best Actress (tied with Jaya Bhaduri for Abhimaan). Qurratulain Hyder of The Illustrated Weekly of India said she was "natural ease and freshness" during her performance. Many of Kapadia's lines, particularly "Mujhse dosti karoge," became extremely popular.

("Will you be my friend?

The "miniskirts, midriff-baring polka dot shirts, and fabled red bikini" she wore made her India's youngest fashion icon. As a result, polka-dotted dresses were often described as "Bobby Print." Kapadia is credited with initiating film memorabilia in India, according to Bhawana Somaaya of The Hindu, and Mukesh Khosla of The Tribune said that Bobby appointed her as a "cult figure" because she influenced the fashion trends. Kapoor credited Raj Kapoor for her rise as an actress in later years: "The sum total of me today as an actor, whoever I am," Kapoor said. Raja Sen of rediff.com named her in Bobby as the fourth best female debut of all time in Hindi cinema: "No one quite portrayed innocence as memorably as Dimple in her first outing." She was candid, striking, and a natural... here was a woman who would rewrite fame and grace and make it seem so simple."

Kapadia returned to acting in 1984, two years after her expulsion from Khanna, citing a personal desire to prove her own abilities to herself. She became one of India's top female actors in less than a decade. Saagar was her first post-hiatus film; a mutual friend alerted Ramesh Sippy of Kapadia's eagerness to return to acting. She thought her screen test for the film was ineffective because she was "literally shivering" while doing it, but Sippy eventually recruited her to play the lead role opposite Bobby co-star Rishi Kapoor. The film was intended to be her comeback vehicle, but its one-year postponement meant that several of her later projects were not released before, the first of which was Zakhmi Sher (1984).

Manzil Manzil (1984), Aitbaar (1985), and Arjun (1985) were two other films released before Saagar. Kapadia appeared in Manzil Manzil, a drama directed by Nasir Hussain, opposite Sunny Deol. When describing her positive experience during the film's development, she felt uncomfortable with the role's usual song-and-dance style. Trade Guide rated her work ineffective, and The Illustrated Weekly of India reported that her future depended entirely on the success of her next few projects. Kapadia's role in Mukul Anand's Hitchcockian thriller Aitbaar has received raves. Neha, a wealthy young woman whose cynical husband (Raj Babbar) plots to murder her, was her role. When filming, she described her appearance as "a bag of nerves," which aided her success because her own state was in tune with her character's inner turmoil. For the second time since returning to film, she was cast opposite Sunny Deol in Rahul Rawail's action film Arjun.

Saagar premiered in August 1985 and was notorious for several scenes starring Kapadia, including one in which she was seen topless for less than a second. The film was selected as India's official entry to the 58th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Kapadia's role as Mona D'Silva, a young Catholic woman torn between her companion (Kamal Haasan) and the man she loves (Kapoor), won her second Best Actress award at the Filmfare Awards. A reviewer in Asiaweek praised the film for its "polished narration and masterly technique," and said Kapadia was "a delight." Kapadia "performed solidly and memorably, grounding the two male leads and making the film work," Rediff.com says. "Saagar was in many ways a paean to her dazzling appearance," India Today's 1993 issue said. She looked ravishing: auburn hair, classical face, deep eyes, and a tone of sensuality. It was evident that she was back.

Feroz Khan's Janbaaz (1986), which is about a man fighting heroin use, made national television for the first time, when Kapadia and male lead Anil Kapoor share a full kiss, which is a rare occurrence in Hindi cinema at the time. In her first regional film, Vikram, a Tamil-language sci-fi film, she starred In the minor role of Inimaasi, a teenage princess who falls in love with Vikram. (Haasan) in the same year. She appeared in a number of Hindi films made by South Indian designers, including Pataal Bhairavi, which she detested. "I shudder even now when I think of those films." She later confessed to accepting these roles for financial gain rather than artistic merit: "I was completely corrupted as an artist."

Kapadia appeared in Rajkumar Kohli's Insaniyat Ke Dushman and Insaaf in 1987; both action films that were well-received with audiences. She played both a dancer and a physician in Insaaf. Pooja in Mahesh Bhatt's marital drama Kaash later this year. Kapadia and Jackie Shroff starred as an estranged couple who learned that the boy is suffering from brain cancer and reunites to spend the remaining months of his life as a family. She called it the most serious artistic challenge of her career before filming began. Since being aware of her own marital history and later revealed that after a point she could not distinguish her from Pooja, she "became the character." Critics also lauded Kapadia's performance. "Dimple achieves the unattainable," Pritish Nandy, editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, said. Befraid of her glitzy make-up, glamour, and filmi demeanor, she comes alive as never before: beautiful, sensitive, intense. You might have noticed a new actress on the screen." The Times of India named it as one of Kapadia's best performances, quoting her "stoic resolve and touching vulnerability" with which Pooja was played, as well as Sukanya Verma's "stoic determination and touching vulnerability," in later years. According to Bhawana Somaya, Kaash had established Kapadia as a performing artist.

Kapadia portrayed Kiran Dutt, a police officer liable for gang homicide, and, when the criminal justice system refuses to convict the perpetrators, he joins other rape survivors to castrate the rapists in revenge. The film was a financial success but it attracted widespread notice for its long, brutal rape scene involving Kapadia, which was one of a new trend of women-centred revenge films. Kapadia's "power packed appearance" was praised by Khalid Mohammed of The Times of India, but the rape sequence was described as "complete lascivity" and "vulgarity spattering across the screen, according to Khalid Mohamed of The Times of India. Manushi, a feminist magazine, panned its low cinematic quality, including the absurdity of the action scenes and the "ugly kind of titillation" in the rape scene, but Kapadia said she had "a commitment to her role, which is unusual among Bombay heroines" in the rape scene, with a performance that is "low key, moving, or seductive" without being at all clinging or seductive. Kapadia appeared in Rajkumar Kohli's action drama Saazish and the horror film Bees Saal Baad, a recreation of the 1962 film of the same name. She was the action star in Mera Shikar, a revenge saga led by Keshu Ramsay, playing Bijli, a once jolly young woman who works in martial arts, to jail a notorious criminal for the offences inflicted on her sister. Subhash K. Jha, who preferred it over Zakhmi Aurat's "sleazy sensationalism," was the film's "unusual patience" with which Bijli's transition was made.

Kapadia appeared in 1989 as Jackie Shroff's love interest in Ram Lakhan, a crime drama directed by Subhash Ghai. Both critics and viewers loved the film, making it the second-highest grossing Hindi film of the year and receiving eight nominations at the 35th Filmfare Awards. In Pati Parmeshwar, she played a courtesan-turned-vengeful mistress. The film was released following a two-year court struggle with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which had originally barred it from screening for its apparent subordination of women by the forgiving wife's "ignoble servility" to her husband. Babbar Subhash's Pyar Ke Naam Qurbaan and J. P. Dutta's action film Batwara are two other Kapadia films this year.

Kapadia began appearing in parallel cinema, a movement of Indian neo-realist art films, in the 1990s, with a proclamation of "inner yearning to show my best potential." Drishti (1990), Lekin (1991), Rudaali (1993), and Antareen (1993). Kapadia and Shekhar Kapur, a married couple from Mumbai's academic milieu, were portrayed in Drishti, a marital drama starring Govind Nihalani, and they followed their trials and tribulations, extramarital affairs, divorce, and eventual reconciliation. Kapadia retold her complete emotional involvement in the role of the protagonist, Sandhya, in which the actor's role was praised; Kapadia was described as "an actress with hidden talents" and appreciated her "intelligent portrayal," according to Subramani, Sandhya emerged as "vulnerable and abundant with feminine wiles." According to a report in The Indian Express, her own separation may have contributed to her understanding of the role and its delicate results. At the 38th National Film Awards, the film was named as the Best Hindi Film of the Year, and a Frontline magazine suggested that Kapadia should have been recognized for the Best Actress award at the same time. The Bengal Film Journalists' Union named her Best Actress (Hindi) of the Year.

The romantic mystery Lekin - based on Rabindranath Tagore's short story Hungry Stones (1895), stars Kapadia as a restless spirit looking for freedom, Reva, who haunts an ancient palace and appears intermittently in the presence of a museum curator (Vinod Khanna) during his Rajasthan visit. As soon as she learned about the role, Kapadia was determined to audition Lata Mangeshkar, the film's director, until she was eventually cast. Gulzar forbidden Kapadia to blink during filming to ensure her character would be "more accurate," according to Gulzar, who was aiming for a "endless, steady gaze" that would give her "a sense of being surreal." Kapadia has often referred to this role as a personal favorite and the pinnacle of her career, but she wishes she had more screen time in the film. Lekin... was well-known among critics, and Kapadia's appearance in it earned her her her third Filmfare nomination. Subhash K. Jha referred to Reva as "the essence of evanescence" and noted Kapadia's "intense tragedy" in which Kapadia appeared.

Kapadia appeared as a young widow in the military drama Prahaar (1991), the actor Nana Patekar's first directorial venture in which she would appear in several other films. Critics applauded the film's co-starring Patekar and Madhuri Dixit. On Patekar's insistence, Kapadia and Dixit decided not to act without wearing makeup. Although critics lauded the female actors for their service, Patekar received the most laud. In the action film Narsimha, she attracted further critical notice when she played a principled office receptionist opposite Sunny Deol.

Kapadia played Varsha B. Singh, an Orthodox Hindu woman married to an influential politician and who has a miscarriage after an assault in Haque (1991), a political drama directed by Harish Bhatt and scripted by Mahesh Bhatt. Varsha's defiance of her husband after years of subordination, although he declines to bring legal action against the assailants due to political reasons. Kapadia portrayed the role convincingly and convincingly, according to the author Ram Awatar Agnihotri. Kapadia appeared alongside Amitabh Bachchan in the fantasy Ajooba, a big-budget Indo-Russian co-production directed by Shashi Kapoor and Gennady Vasilyev. The film, based on Arabian mythology and location in Baharistan's fictional kingdom, Rukhsana, was based on her role as Rukhsana, a young woman who arrives from India to save her father from jail. The critical reaction to Ajooba was poor, and it did not succeed in Indian cinemas, but it was a success in the Soviet Union.

Maarg, Mahesh Bhatt's second project, was postponed for several years until its straight-to-video debut in late 1992. Kapadia plays Uma, who works as a prostitute by choice in this film, and it's about power politics within an ashram. It was "a satire" with "excellent performances," according to critic Iqbal Masood. Kapadia's role was so intense that she nearly died after filming ended, according to Bhatt. In Hema Malini's debut directorial debut, she played Barkha, a single mother who abandons her newly-born, out-of-wedlock child. Kapadia played Mili, a homeless orphanage whose money is collected by an unemployed man in Shashilal K. Nair's crime drama Angaar (1992). Critics loved Angaar's and Kapadia's success in it, but it was financially poor. Meena Iyer of The Times of India, who described it as "one of the most engaging mafia films to have come out of Bollywood," attributed to the film's limited audience to its subject matter.

Kapadia received the National Film Award for Best Actress for her role in Rudaali, a drama directed by Kalpana Lajmi and based on Mahasweta Devi's short story of the same name. Shanichari, a tumultuous Rajasthani village woman who suffered through a lifetime of misfortune, has never cried and is facing a new challenge as a professional mourner. The award was described as a "compelling representation of a lonely woman befuddled by a cruel society." Kapadia's "dignity and conviction, as well as her expressive body language and gestures, lifted her character much beyond bathos," Indologist Philip Lutgendorf said. She received the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Achievement and was named with Best Actress and Best Actress honors at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival and the International Film Festival in Damascus, among other accolades. Critics and moviegoers applauded Rudaali, and it was India's submission to the 66th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Kapadia's participation in the film was included in the magazine "80 Iconic Performances" in 2010.

In the Priyadarshan-directed crime drama Gardish, Kapadia received another Filmfare nomination for her support role as Shanti, a street prostitute whose husband and child were burned alive. Kritikers and the public supported an adaptation of the 1989 Malayalam film Kireedam, which starred Jackie Shroff and Amrish Puri. The Indian Express praised the film's "script, vivid characters, and persuasive dialogues," as well as Kapadia's ability to compel audience attention. Mrinal Sen's 1993 Bengali drama Antareen, which was based on Saadat Hasan Manto's short story Badshahat ka Khatama (1950), was Kapadia's first non-Hindi project since Vikram (1986). (Anjan Dutt) She played an unhappy woman who begins a telephonic friendship with a stranger. Kapadia insisted on playing the part spontaneously and subsequently declined to enroll in a crash-course in Bengali, where she felt she'd be able to speak clearly. Anushua Chatterjee later sluggishly dismissed her voice, a decision with which Kapadia was dissatisfied. Antareen was well-received and was named the Best Bengali Film at the 41st National Film Awards, but Kapadia was dissatisfied with the outcome and dismissed it as a bad film.

Kapadia portrayed Meghna Dixit, an alcoholic, unemployed village man (Nana Patekar), as a victim of justice for those around him in 1994. The film was a box-office hit and became India's third-highest-grossing picture of the year. Kapadia was lauded by the Indian Express for his transformation into a leading character actor in this film. Kapadia received her third Filmfare Award for her appearance, this time in the Best Supporting Actress category.

Kapadia had hoped to appear in more independent films after Antareen, but she had to postponed her acting career for three years, later saying she was "emotionally exhausted." In 1997, she returned to commercial cinema, playing Amitabh Bachchan's wife in Mrityudaata under Mehul Kumar's direction. The film was a commercial and commercial failure; India Today panned its "comic book-level storytelling" as a result. Kapadia played a part in a way unworthy of her time, according to the trade journal Film Information, and Kapadia shared similar sentiments. Do Hazaar Ek (1998), the murder mystery, which audiences disapproved despite a heightened start, was her next release. Kapadia appeared in Laawar (1999), opposite Jackie Shroff in a role in which, according to Hindustan Times, she had nothing to do but scream; Rediff.com's Sharmila Taliculam condemned the film for its formulaic script and lack of originality. Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain, Kapadia's last film of the decade, played Devyani Chopra, the strict mother of a wealthy family. While Subhash K. Jha called the film an embarrassment, Suparn Verma gave a critical account of Kapadia's performance, noting that she "wears a permanent scowl" throughout the film.

Kapadia co-starred in Farhan Akhtar's debut film of the millennium in depicting the contemporaneous, daily life of Indian affluent youth (Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, and Akshaye Khanna). Tara Jaiswal, a middle-aged woman, an interior designer by trade, and a divorcee who is not allowed to see her daughter were all portrayed in Kapadia's role. Siddharth (Khanna), a young man who she befriends and who falls deeply in love with her, is the subject of the film. Akhtar wrote the scene specifically for Kapadia, who later called it "a role to die for" and said that making the film was an enriching experience. Critics praised Dil Chahta Hai's as a pioneering film for its realistic representation of Indian youth. The film did well in large cities, but it did not do well in rural areas, which trade analysts attributed to the urban lifestyle depicted in it. "Dimple Kapadia, in a brief, somewhat underdeveloped role, portrays a moving study of loneliness," Saibal Chatterjee said in a Hindustan Times review.

Kapadia portrayed the title role in the drama Leela, directed by Somnath Sen and co-stars Deepti Naval, Vinod Khanna, and Amol Mhatre in 2002. Kapadia's part, which was written specifically for her, is that of a forty-year-old married Mumbai University professor who, after the death of her mother, loses her sense of joy and accepts a teaching position in South Asian studies in California. Leela's narrative follows her as she adjusts to her new surroundings and her friendship with Kris (Mhatre), one of her students. During the film's development, Kapadia was nervous, but claims the heat lifted her acting. "Dimple Kapadia shines in this family melodrama," American critics said, including Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide: "The film's highlight is her intelligent, nuanced performance." Leela and Kapadia's work was also applauded by Indian reviews.

In Hum Kaun Hai, Kapadia played lead role for army wife Sandra Williams. A supernatural thriller in 2004. The film opened to mixed critical reception, but critics claimed that Kapadia's presence and charismatic presence bolster an otherwise weak script. For the third time since Bobby (1973) and Saagar (1985) in Pyaar Mein Twist, middle-aged single parents who fall in love and then have to deal with their children's behavior, Kapadia and Rishi Kapoor reunited as a lead couple. The film received mostly critical feedback, but critics agreed that the chemistry between the lead pair and the lead pair was sufficient to warrant watching it, despite acknowledging the nostalgic value of the pairing. Few people attended the film; within two weeks it was declared a failure. Afreen Khan, a scholar from the traditional portrayal of mothers in Hindi films, portrayed Kapadia as a departure from the normal portrayal of mothers in Hindi films, with her role as a modern mother whom daughters aspire to have.

Kapadia co-starred with Saif Ali Khan and Naseeruddin Shah in the black comedy Being Cyrus, an English-language independent film and Homi Adajania's first directorial debut. 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. The film was well-received at a number of film festivals before its theatrical debut in India, upon which critics and audiences alike applauded the film for its modest budget. "The descent into despair of Dimple Kapadia's Katy is enthralling," Poonam Joshi of the BBC said, although other commentators, including Derek Elley from Variety and Shradha Sukumaran from Midday, have chastised her for overacting. Kapadia played a wealthy Brahmin woman whose daughter falls in love with a man of a lower caste in Banaras (2006).

P. K. Prakash's romance Kapadia and Mithun Chakraborty as elderly people who attend a school reunion and rekindle their high-school romance. At the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival, the film was given seven prizes, including Best Film Award in the Narrative Feature section. A year later, it was released direct-to-video and was simultaneously available on pay-per-view direct-to-home (DTH) networks, becoming the first Hindi film to debut on streaming media platforms. In the animated film Jumbo (2008), a spin on the 2006 Thai computer animation Khan Kluay, Kapadia voiced Devi, the mother of the elephant Jumbo (Kumar).

Kapadia appeared in Zoya Akhtar's first directorial venture, Chance by Chance (2009), a satirical look at the Hindi film industry. Neena Walia, a young actress who was never fully established, played "a crocodile in a chiffon saree" in the film, a mother who is attempting to bring her young daughter's film career to the theater industry. Kapadia was auditioned for the role because it needed an actor who had never been a conventional female lead in the past. Kapadia is "all warm, soft sunshine, but then there's a flip and she's hard, cold steely," Akhtar remarked in regard to the character's fickle nature. Luck By Chance elicited a warm reaction, even though its financial resources were modest. Kapadia's performance earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at Filmfare, and critics applauded her. Deepa Karmalkar of Screen portrayed her role as "gloriously bitchy," while Avijit Ghosh of The Times of India said Kapadia had given "one of her most nuanced performances" in a role he found to be "a rare breed of Hindi film mother" who is "hawk-eyed, tough as nails, but vain."

Kapadia appeared in Dabangg, Salman Khan's asthmatic mother's debut in 2010, India's most popular film of the year and the second-highest grossing Hindi film of all time up to that date. Kapadia's reviews were mixed; Shubhra Gupta dismissed her as "completely incorrect" and Blessy Chettiar of Daily News and Analysis likened her character to "the mothers in Hindi cinema of yore, selfless, torn between couples, although somewhat over the top, but still likedable." Tum Milo Toh Sahi, which was released the same year, is a romantic drama in which Kapadia plays Delshad Nanji, a Parsi woman in charge of an Irani café whose business is in jeopardy from developers and who falls in love with the lawyer (Nana Patekar), who represents her in court. While preparing for the role, Kapadia adopted a Parsi accent and visited several Irani cafés in Mumbai to learn about their history and get into the character's mood. Kapadia's debut received generally critical feedback, but average critiques followed the film. Anupama Chopra was dismissive of her character, which she said "veers into caricature," but Kapadia "plays her with love and enthusiasm, and at least has some fun doing it."

Patiala House, Nikhil Advani's only film of 2011, was Kapadia's Patiala House, a sports film in which she was cast as both Rishi Kapoor's wife and son in-law, Akshay Kumar's mother. She appeared in Bombay Mittayi, her first appearance in a Malayalam-language film for which she started learning the language. On her first appearance, she played the wife of a well-known Ghazal singer, played by Amar Singh.

Kapadia also worked with Homi Adajania in Cocktail (2012) and Finding Fanny (2014), both critical and commercial triumphs. Kavita Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan's brash Punjabi mother, appeared on Cocktail, making her appearance at this event, which Aniruddha Guha of Daily News and Analysis described as a "veritable treat." Kapadia was shown the script of the satirical road film Finding Fanny, proving Adajania is a director with the highest degree of human capabilities, she expressed keen interest in the venture when filming Cocktail. Rosalina "Rosie" Eucharistica, a conceited-but-meaning woman who travels with her late son's widow (Deepika Padukone) on a road trip through Goa, was cast as Rosalina "Rosie" Eucharistica. Kapadia was expected to wear a heavy prosthetic posterior for the role, and her appearance earned her her fourth Best Supporting Actress award at Filmfare. Kapadia "inhabits and enhances her role" in the New York Times, according to Rachel Saltz of The New York Times, "steers clear of caricature and even milks some humour out of the unfunny script."

Kapadia was the protagonist of the comedy What the Fish in 2013, portraying Sudha Mishra, an irate Delhi-based divorcee who grudgingly entrusts her niece with taking care of her house when she is away. Kapadia was excited about the role but was afraid to display its particulars. Both the film and Kapadia's work were mixed. The Times of India had criticized the film's script for making "Kapadia's attempts to make comedies seem loud and forced," according to Raja Sen, who said her role was among the film's most forgettable of her career. The film, according to Sarita A. Tanwar of Daily News and Analysis, was "in top form" and said Kapadia was "in top form," as well as positive remarks made by Subhash K. Jha.

Kapadia returned to film twice for minor roles in the action comedies Welcome Back (2015) and Dabangg 3 (2019). In Anees Bazmee's Welcome Back, she appeared as a conwoman as well as an ensemble cast led by Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar. Mihir Fadnavis of Hindustan Times portrayed her role as a "embarrassing, extended cameo," but Rajeev Masand took note of her "droll" presence. Naina Devi appeared in Dabangg 3, the third installment of the Dabangg film series.

Kapadia appeared in the comedy-drama Angrezi Medium (2020), her fourth film under Homi Adajania's direction in her first film of the 2020s. In India, it was theatrically released on March 13th as a result of the closing of cinemas, which also affected the company's commercial success. Initial plans for a re-release were scrapped, and the film was released digitally less than a month later. Kapadia was a tight store owner estranged from her daughter (Kapoor), a function that Vinayak Chakravorty of Outlook believed was "used to demonstrate loneliness among the aged" but could have been greater.

In Christopher Nolan's spy drama Tenet, Kapadia next appeared as arms dealer Priya Singh. Adajania's screen test for the role was shot in 2019 before filming for Angrezi Medium began, followed by an audition for Nolan in Mumbai. Nolan, who believes she embodied his vision of the role, captivated her with her charisma and poise, portraying Kapadia in the role. The film debuted to a worldwide audience and became the fifth-highest grossing film of 2020 after being grossed $364 million worldwide. Critics responded positively to her appearance; Chicago Sun-Times' Richard Roeper wrote, Kapadia "quietly steals every scene she's in"; and Guy Lodge of Variety said she had given the film her "best appearance." Kapadia credited Tenet with resurrecting her love for film acting after admitting to being a reluctant actor for years.

Kapadia starred in Ali Abbas Zafar's 2021 Amazon Prime Minister of India's Tandav as Anuradha Kishore, a power-hungry politician aiming to destabilize her longtime ally, Prime Minister of India Deputy Saif Ali Khan. Mixed reactions followed Kapadia's debut on a digital platform. Kapadia appears in Behzad Khambata's vigilante-hostage drama starring Yami Gautam on Thursday (2022). Kapadia's future plans include Ayan Mukerji's action fantasy Brahm's Brahms and Dinesh Vijan's untitled comedy as of February 2022. She will appear in Pathan led by Shah Rukh Khan and play opposite Pankaj Kapur in Saurabh Shukla's Jab Khuli Kitaab, a romantic comedy about an older couple who want divorce after 50 years of marriage.

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