Inspired by her experience with Ray, she decided to join the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune to learn acting, and passed with the gold medal. She was also picked out to play the eponymous role of Guddi in the 1971 Hrishikesh Mukherjee film, Guddi in which she played a schoolgirl obsessed with film star Dharmendra. Guddi was a success, and she moved to Mumbai and soon picked other roles, however her role of a 14-year-old schoolgirl, aided by her petite looks, created the girl-next-door image for her, which she was often associated with through the rest of her career. Though she tried to break out of the mould with glamorous roles as in Jawani Diwani, (1972) and a negative character of the heroine faking amnesia, in Anamika (1973), she was mostly recognised for roles of the sort which were credited with 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), performed with marked sensitivity. By now, she was a popular star.