the story of a blind man who avenges the rape of his blind wife. The film, as well as her performance, received mixed-to-positive reviews and the film emerged as a financial success, earning 1.96 billion (US$28 million) worldwide. Later in 2017, Gautam featured briefly in Ram Gopal Varma's political thriller Sarkar 3, the third installment of Varma's Sarkar franchise, alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Manoj Bajpayee, and Amit Sadh. Sarkar 3 failed to do well at the box office. Gautam's next release was the Shree Narayan Singh directed-social problem dramedy Batti Gul Meter Chalu (2018), in which she played a lawyer alongside Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, and Divyendu Sharma. Breakthrough and success (2019-present) Gautam's greatest success came in 2019 when she appeared in Aditya Dhar's military action thriller film Uri: The Surgical Strike, alongside Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Mohit Raina, and Kirti Kulhari. Based on the 2016 Uri attack, Gautam portrayed Pallavi Sharma, a nurse-turned-an intelligence officer. Upon release, the film received high critical acclaim, with Gautam's performance receiving high praise. The film emerged as the third highest grossing Hindi film of the year, earning over 3.42 billion (US$44 million) worldwide. She next reunited with Khurrana in Amar Kaushik's comedy-drama Bala, a satire on physical attractiveness, which was released on 7 November 2019. Also featuring Bhumi Pednekar, the film opened to positive reviews, with Gautam unanimously receiving acclaim for her portrayal of Pari Mishra, a ditsy Tik Toker and a part time model hailing from Lucknow, who upon finding about her husband's baldness, feels cheated and leaves him. Film critic Sukanya Verma found Gautam "part delirious, part deluded" in the film and felt "there's a gentle unhinged air to her compulsive, sincere artificiality that makes her both fascinating and heartbreaking" and featured her in the Rediff's list of Best Bollywood Actresses in 2019. Bala proved to be a commercial success with a worldwide gross of 1.7billion (US$22 million). In 2020, she appeared as Ginny in the film Ginny Weds Sunny opposite Vikrant Massey directed by debutant Puneet Khanna and produced by Vinod Bachchan. The film was directly released on Netflix on 9 October 2020 instead of a theatrical release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon its release, the film received mixed reviews. In 2021, Gautam played the role of Maya in Pavan Kirpalani's horror comedy Bhoot Police, co-starring Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor and Jacqueline Fernandez. The film met with