Early work and recognition (2015–2018)

Pednekar's acting debut came as the overweight wife of Ayushmann Khurrana's character in the Yash Raj Films-produced and Sharat Katariya-directed romantic comedy Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015). In preparation, she gained almost 12 kg body weight.^[12] Rajeev Masand reviewed, "Pednekar steals the film with an assured turn, effortlessly making you care for Sandhya, without ever reducing her to a slobbering, self-pitying caricature."^[13] After filming, she began losing weight and shared methods and tips of the process through her social media.^[11][14] A commercial success, Dum Laga Ke Haisha won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and earned Pednekar the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.^[15] That year she was featured in Y-Films's four part mini web series Man's World.^[16] Based on the subject of gender inequality, it digitally premiered on YouTube.^[17][18]

Two years later, Pednekar was cast in the satire Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017) as a young woman in rural India who insists on the eradication of open defecation, opposite Akshay Kumar.^[19] Despite disliking the story, Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV praised her for "flesh[ing] out a refreshingly relatable college topper who becomes the principal catalyst for a mini-revolution".^[20] With a worldwide gross of over ₹3 billion (US$38 million), it emerged as one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of the year and Pednekar's biggest grosser.^[21][22]

Later that year, her performance opposite Khurrana in Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, a satire on erectile dysfunction, earned Pednekar her first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.^[23][24] Reviewing the film for The Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta wrote that Pednekar "once again reminds us just how convincing she can be as a real honest-to-goodness young woman in search of love", but bemoaned that she was being typecast in such roles.^[25] Shubh Mangal Saavdhan grossed ₹700 million (US$8.8 million) worldwide.^[26] Zoya Akhtar's segment in the Netflix anthology film Lust Stories marked Pednekar's sole screen appearance of 2018; she played a maid who has an affair with her employer.^[27] Writing for NDTV, Raja Sen considered Akhtar's segment to be the best in the anthology, and found Pednekar "hauntingly good" in it.^[28]

Rise to prominence (2019–2022)

Abhishek Chaubey's crime drama Sonchiriya was Pednekar's first release of 2019. She played a young housewife on the run in rural Chambal, alongside Sushant Singh Rajput and Manoj Bajpayee. In preparation, she underwent two and a half months of physical training to portray her character's mannerism and gait; she also learned to fire a gun.^[29] Rahul Desai of Film Companion praised the subtlety in the film and its performances, and credited Pednekar for "lend[ing] an inevitable sense of womanhood to the silenced".^[30] She next starred as the septuagenarian sharpshooter Chandro Tomar in Tushar Hiranandani's biographical film Saand Ki Aankh, opposite Taapsee Pannu who played her sister-in-law Prakashi Tomar. In preparation, Pannu and Pednekar spent time with the two women and trained in shooting a gun.^[2] She suffered from skin allergies from filming in the heat wearing prosthetic make-up.^[31] Udita Jhunjunwala of Mint wrote, "Pannu and Pednekar are wonderful and spunky and embrace their parts even though their body language and posture is variable".^[32] Both actresses were jointly awarded the Screen Award and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress.^[33][34]

Continuing her portrayals of headstrong small-town women, Pednekar starred in Bala and Pati Patni Aur Woh (both 2019).^[2] The former marked her third collaboration with Khurrana, in which she played a dark-skinned woman who faces prejudice due to her skin colour. Controversy arose for casting a fair-skinned woman in the role, but Pednekar defended herself by saying that an actor should be allowed to play any part.^[35][36] Pati Patni Aur Woh, a remake of a 1978 film of the same name and co-starring Kartik Aaryan and Ananya Panday, featured her as a housewife with a philandering husband. Anupama Chopra wrote that "it's Bhumi Pednekar's spirited Vedika who lifts the material up a notch. Bhumi has an intelligence that rescues some of the silliest scenes in this film, especially in the climax."^[37] Both Bala and Pati Patni Aur Woh were commercially successful, each grossing over ₹1 billion (US$13 million) worldwide.^[38]

Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare, directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and co-starring Konkona Sen Sharma, was screened at the 24th Busan International Film Festival in 2019 and released on Netflix later in 2020.^[39][40] Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in wrote that despite doing a "fine job", Pednekar had been overshadowed by her co-star Sen Sharma.^[41] Nonetheless, both actresses received nominations for the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress.^[42] She next had brief roles in the comedy-drama Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan and the horror film Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship.^[43] In the same year, Pednekar starred in a remake of the horror film Bhaagamathie, named Durgamati, which was released on Amazon Prime Video.^[44] In a scathing review, Rohan Naahar of Hindustan Times disliked the film and Pednekar's performance.^[45]

After a year-long absence from the screen, Pednekar starred alongside Rajkummar Rao as gay individuals in a lavender marriage in the comedy-drama Badhaai Do (2022).^[46][47] She was pleased with the opportunity of playing the vulnerable character of a closeted lesbian, as it marked a departure from the strong-willed women she typically played.^[48] Rachana Dubey of The Times of India praised the film's handling of LGBT themes and found Pednekar's performance to be "sensitive, nuanced, and on point".^[49] She won another Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress (shared with Tabu for Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2), in addition to her second nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.^[50][51] She reteamed with Akshay Kumar in Aanand L. Rai's family film Raksha Bandhan. The film was panned for its regressive storytelling and it emerged as a box office bomb.^[52] She then appeared in Shashank Khaitan's comic thriller Govinda Naam Mera, co-starring Vicky Kaushal and Kiara Advani, which released on Disney+ Hotstar.^[53] Mid-Day's Hiren Kotwani found her "over-the-top" portrayal to be the best performance in a disappointing film.^[54]

Commercial failures (2023–present)

In 2023, Pednekar reteamed with Rajkummar Rao in Anubhav Sinha's Bheed, a drama in black-and-white about the COVID-19 lockdown in India.^[55] Reviewers for Scroll.in and Rediff.com complimented her for ably supporting Rao's performance.^[56][57] She then starred alongside Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Sudhir Mishra's Afwaah, a thriller about fake news.^[58] Both Bheed and Afwaah had controversial political themes; they received a limited theatrical release and had poor box office returns.^[59][60] Her next release, the sex comedy Thank You for Coming, premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.^[61] It marked her first project in which she was cast in an urban setting, but she found it challenging to play a character that came close to her own personality, saying that it required "a lot of [my] own demons [...] to be examined".^[62] Comparing her "vibrant comedic performance" to that of stars Carole Lombard and Goldie Hawn, IndieWire's Marya E. Gates found Pednekar's "irrepressible charm" and "overwhelming beauty" to be the highlight in a mediocre film.^[63] Though another box office bomb, she received another Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.^[64][65] She then starred opposite Arjun Kapoor in the thriller The Lady Killer. The film was released without principal photography being completed; it was only given a small release without any marketing and did not find an audience.^[66] It became one of the biggest box office bombs of Indian cinema, earning less than ₹1 lakh against a production budget of ₹45 crore.^[67]

In 2024, Pednekar portrayed a journalist in the crime drama Bhakshak.^[68] She described the role as "one of my most mature", causing her to "question my empathy and how I had become so numb towards somebody else’s pain".^[69] Shubhra Gupta described her as "earnest" and "believable" in a movie that lacked "basic story-telling".^[70] She will next be seen alongside Rakul Preet Singh and opposite Arjun Kapoor in the comedy Meri Patni Ka Remake.^[71] Pendekar will also star in the thriller series Daldal for Prime Video.^[72]