That year, Mukerji received a second Best Actress nomination at Filmfare for her work opposite Abhishek Bachchan in "Bunty Aur Babli", a crime comedy film which marked her fifth collaboration with Yash Raj Films. She played the title character of Babli, a con woman. The film was the second highest-grossing Hindi film of 2005. Namrata Joshi of "Outlook" wrote that she "plays to the gallery with ease". Mukerji followed it with Amol Palekar's fantasy film "Paheli", reuniting her with Shah Rukh Khan. The film was a box office flop in India but was given a strong international release; it was screened at the Sundance Film Festival and was India's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Academy Awards. Raja Sen of Rediff.com was impressed by the film as well as Mukerji's performance which he called "another perfectly played part". Mukerji's final release of the year was the period film "", about the titular soldier. Director Ketan Mehta initially approached her for a cameo appearance, which was developed into a larger part after she gave her consent to star in the film. Her role was that of Heera, a prostitute who forms the love interest of Pandey (Aamir Khan). Derek Elley mentioned that despite a small role, Mukerji made "the most of her feisty nautch-girl".