In "Zakhmi Aurat" (1988), Kapadia played Kiran Dutt, a police officer who is subjected to gang rape and, when the judicial system fails to convict the criminals, unites with other rape survivors to castrate the rapists in revenge. Among the first of a new trend of women-centred revenge films, the film was a financial success but polarised critics and attracted wide coverage for its lengthy, brutal rape scene involving Kapadia. Khalid Mohamed of "The Times of India" noted Kapadia's "power packed performance" but criticised the rape sequence as "utter lasciviousness" and "vulgarity spattering through the screen". Feminist magazine "Manushi" panned its low cinematic quality, including the absurdity of the action scenes and the "ugly kind of titillation" in the rape scene but said Kapadia brought "a conviction to her role that is rare among Bombay heroines" with a performance that is "low key, moving and charming without being at all clinging or seductive". The same year, Kapadia worked with Rajkumar Kohli on the action drama "Saazish" and the horror film "Bees Saal Baad", a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. She was the action star in "Mera Shikar", a revenge saga directed by Keshu Ramsay, playing Bijli, a once joyous young woman who trains in martial arts to punish a notorious gangster for the crimes inflicted upon her sister. The film was described as an "extraordinarily adroit entertainer" by Subhash K. Jha, who preferred it over the "sleazy sensationalism" of "Zakhmi Aurat" and noted the "unusual restraint" with which Bijli's transformation was achieved.