She won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014) and went on to establish herself with starring roles in several romantic films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions.

Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character.

[25] Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside newcomers Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan.

She found it in Imtiaz Ali's coming-of-age film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a young woman from a wealthy family who, after being abducted, develops Stockholm syndrome towards her captor (played by Randeep Hooda).

[36][37] Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films 2 States and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014).

[49] Bhatt began 2016 with a supporting role in Shakun Batra's ensemble drama Kapoor & Sons, starring alongside Malhotra and Fawad Khan, which was a critical and commercial success.

The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect.

Rachel Saltz of The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman.

[61] Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller Raazi (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer.

[70] Her first appearance that year was opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy.

[73] Writing for Screen International, Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt's sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that Gully Boy essays".

[83][84] The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of The Times of India dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".

[87][88][89] She portrayed the title role of a prostitute in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's biopic Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022), which premiered at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival.

[91] Commenting on media speculation that Bhatt had been miscast in such an assertive part, Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV opined that "the actress puts all doubts to rest with a marvellously lively performance".

[92] Additionally, Stutee Ghosh of The Quint commended her for playing the part with a "rare mix of innocence and jaw clenching seething anger".

[107][108] Bhatt reunited with Johar for his directorial, the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023), co-starring Ranveer Singh.

[113][114] Bhatt expanded to American cinema in the same year with Heart of Stone, a Netflix spy film co-starring Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan.

[119] Bhatt attached herself as an executive producer on the crime drama series Poacher for its streaming release on Amazon Prime Video in 2024, after it premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

[122] Citing it as one of her weaker performances in a mixed review of the film, Saibal Chatterjee was appreciative of her against-type portrayal of a heroic character challenging gender norms.

[124] Bhatt will next join the YRF Spy Universe in a female-led instalment titled Alpha, and will reteam with Bhansali in the romantic drama Love & War, co-starring Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal.

[131] She participated in a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the victims of the 2013 North India floods.

[132] She also performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, and Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.

[144] In 2022, she became the first actress from India to partner with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group for their "I'm a Fan" campaign, through which she raised funds for the Salaam Bombay Foundation, which helps underprivileged adolescents.

[145] Under MiSu, Bhatt sold the saris she wore in her film Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023) to raise funds for women's healthcare.

[156] The following year, Bhatt wrote the children's picture book Ed Finds a Home, the first part in a planned The Adventures of Ed-a-Mamma series, about a young girl with supernatural abilities.

[169] In the book Being Bollywood: Postfeminism, Celebrity Culture and Femininity in the Global South (2023), author Viraj Suparsad wrote that Bhatt was among a new generation of Indian actresses who successfully balanced her professional life alongside marriage and motherhood.

[172] The journalist Raja Sen, in 2022, described Bhatt as "petite compared to her contemporaries" and wrote that she uses her "girlishness and diminutive size" to surprise those who might underestimate her ability to play certain roles or dominate the screen.

[174] Laura Zornosa of Time magazine believes that Bhatt specialises in playing "fiercely tenacious lead roles",[88] and Liz Kang of CNN has identified a theme of "dynamic, unconventional female characters in troubling circumstances".

[151] Bhatt said that she does not deconstruct her craft, believing that "I'd become a machine rather than a human being", adding that she chooses contrasting projects to "satisfy my extremely impatient, monotony-abhorring kind of brain".

[186] In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of GQ featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films".