 Following an appearance in the music video of Coldplay's "Hymn for the Weekend" (featuring Beyoncé), Kapoor starred in Ram Madhvani's biographical thriller Neerja (2016). She was cast as the eponymous air hostess Neerja Bhanot, who died while saving the passengers of the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 in 1986. Kapoor added that she felt a "little more responsible towards the film as it is based on a real person", and to prepare for her role, she met Bhanot's family. The film garnered wide critical acclaim, and several commentators considered Kapoor's performance to be her best to date. Raja Sen found her performance to be career-defining, while Hindustan Times' Rohit Vats wrote that "she carries [the film] entirely on her shoulder. She looks earnest, scared, benevolent and bold, all at the same time." With a worldwide gross of ₹ 1.47 billion (US $ 22 million), the film emerged as one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films featuring a female protagonist.
