Feroz Khan's "Janbaaz" (1986), which is about a man fighting drug addiction, became known for a love scene in which Kapadia and male lead Anil Kapoor share a full-on kiss, a rare occasion in Hindi cinema at the time. The same year, she acted opposite Kamal Haasan in her first regional film, "Vikram", a Tamil-language sci-fi feature, in the minor role of Inimaasi, a young princess who falls in love with Vikram (Haasan). At that time, she worked in numerous Hindi films made by producers from South India, including "Pataal Bhairavi", which she detested. She later confessed to accepting these roles for financial gain rather than artistic merit: "I shudder even now when I think of those films. As an artiste I got totally corrupted."