epitomising middle-class sensibility, which she played amiably in films of "middle-cinema" directors such as Gulzar, Basu Chatterjee and indeed Hrishikesh Mukherjee. These films include Uphaar (1971), Piya Ka Ghar (1972), Parichay (1972), Koshish (1972) and Bawarchi (1972). They also made her a superstar. In Gulzar's Koshish (1973), Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar played a deaf couple who struggle through their difficulties as disabled people. She described the film as "a learning experience" which motivated her to do social work in future. She first acted with Amitabh Bachchan in Bansi Birju (1972), followed by B. R. Ishara's Ek Nazar also in the same year. When Amitabh had faced a string of flops and most lead heroines refused to work with him in the Salim–Javed scripted Zanjeer (1973), she agreed to step in. The film turned out to be a big hit creating Amitabh Bachchan's angry-young-man image. All their successive films as a pair were huge hits - Abhimaan (1973), Chupke Chupke (1975), Mili (1975) and Sholay (1975). Her daughter Shweta was born around the time Jaya and Amitabh were working on Sholay. Following this, she retired from films and focused on raising her children, making an exception for Yash Chopra's Silsila (1981), once again opposite her husband. During the late 1980s, she wrote the story for Shahenshah (1988), which starred her husband in the lead. After a gap of 17 years, she returned to acting with Govind Nihalani's Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998), a film about the Naxalite movement. In 2000, she starred in Fiza for which she received the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also starred in Karan Johar's ensemble family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001) with her husband. She then starred in Johar's romantic comedy-drama, Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), playing Preity Zinta's mother, Jennifer Kapur, both of which also earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. She starred with her son Abhishek in Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007) and Drona (2008). In 2011, she appeared in the Bangladeshi film Meherjaan starring with Victor Banerjee and Humayun Faridi. The film is based on a Bangladesh-Pakistan love story in the backdrop of the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities. Political career Bachchan was first elected in 2004 as the Member of Parliament from the Samajwadi Party, representing Uttar Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha till March 2006. She got a second term from June 2006 till July 2010 and in