Roy made her film debut opposite Prosenjit Chatterjee in Tapan Sinha's much acclaimed Bengali film "Atanka" (1986), which won her the BFJA Awards for the Best Supporting Actress in 1987. She shot to stardom after she had been paired with Tapas Paul in films such as "Amar Bandhan" (1986), "Guru Dakshina" (1987), "Antaranga" (1988), "Apan Amar Apan" (1990) and "Abishkar" (1990) to name a few. Her major hits with Prosenjit Chatterjee include "Alingan" (1990), "Shraddhanjali" (1993), "Lathi" (1996), "Sakhi Tumi Kar" (1996), "Chandragrahan" (1997), "Ranokhetro" (1998), "Sajani Aamar Sohag" (2000) and "Trishul" (2000) to name few. She made her Bollywood debut in National Award winning director Jyoti Sarup's "Naya Zaher" (1991). She collaborated with Tapan Sinha for the second time in his "Antardhan" (1992). She was conferred with the BFJA Awards for the Best Supporting Actress for the second time in 2005, for her performance in Raja Sen's "Debipaksha". During her heyday, she was often compared to her contemporaries, such as Debashree Roy and Rituparna Sengupta. She made her directorial debut with "Abhinetri" (2006), which was an unequivocal reflection of the life and career of Bengali matinee idol Suchitra Sen. The film turned out to be a commercial as well as critical failure.