Rani Mukherjee

Established actress (2002–2006)

Mukerji turned down an offer from Mira Nair to star in the English film The Namesake, choosing instead to reteam with Karan Johar in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), a drama about infidelity. Collaborating once again with Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan and Zinta, she played an unhappily married woman who has an affair with a married man. Commenting on the divisive nature of her role, Mukerji said that it changed her own perception of love and marriage. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was a popular release, earning over ₹1.13 billion (US$12 million) to emerge as the highest-grossing Hindi film in overseas to that point. Rajeev Masand wrote that the "consistently competent Rani Mukherjee takes on the film's toughest role — a part that may be hard to sympathise with — but she injects it with tenderness and believability", but Kaveree Bamzai of India Today dismissed it as another one of her roles requiring the "art of weeping copiously and smiling valiantly". It won Mukerji a third consecutive IIFA Award for Best Actress and a sixth Best Actress nomination at Filmfare. The poorly received melodrama Baabul was her final film appearance of that year.