Early work and struggle (2014–2019) Advani began her acting career with the ensemble comedy film
Fugly (2014) alongside newcomer Mohit Marwah. Mehul S Thakkar of
Deccan Chronicle found her "very striking" and said that she "shows a lot of promise".
Fugly underperformed at the box office but she received a nomination at the
Screen Awards for
Best Female Debut. Advani admitted to feeling demotivated after the film's failure as film offers became scarce. '' in 2016 Two years later, Advani appeared in the sports drama
M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), a biopic of cricketer
MS Dhoni who served as a former captain of
Indian cricket team. She had a supporting role opposite
Sushant Singh Rajput (who essayed Dhoni), as the real-life character of his wife, hotel manager Sakshi Rawat.
M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story was a major commercial success with global revenues of over . She next appeared in
Abbas–Mustan's action thriller
Machine (2017). Critic
Taran Adarsh felt that Advani had shown potential in a mediocre film. It failed at the box office. She next collaborated with filmmaker
Karan Johar, for their first of many films, in the
Netflix anthological film
Lust Stories (2018), where she starred opposite
Vicky Kaushal as his sexually dissatisfied wife. Writing for
NDTV, Raja Sen found her to be "positively lovely" in it. Advani expanded to
Telugu cinema in 2018, appearing with
Mahesh Babu in the action film
Bharat Ane Nenu from
Koratala Siva, about a student who unexpectedly becomes the chief minister of
Andhra Pradesh. Janani K of
India Today opined that she "shines in her brief role" but added that her character was "more of an eye-candy who doesn't add any purpose to the story". The film grossed worldwide, making it one of
Telugu cinema's highest grossers. She, however, failed to replicate this success with her second Telugu film,
Vinaya Vidheya Rama, co-starring
Ram Charan. In a scathing review for
The Hindu, Sangeetha Devi Dundoo wrote, "It isn't Kiara Advani's fault that she looks lost in the melee." In the same year, she had a guest appearance in
Abhishek Varman's ensemble period film
Kalank, produced by Johar.
Rise to prominence (2019–) Advani received wider attention later in 2019 for
Sandeep Reddy Vanga's romantic drama
Kabir Singh, starring
Shahid Kapoor. The film had a worldwide gross of over becoming her highest-grossing release, but critics panned it due to its depiction of
misogyny and
toxic masculinity.
Rajeev Masand bemoaned that her passive character "offers the actress little to work with". She then starred in the comedy
Good Newwz alongside
Akshay Kumar,
Kareena Kapoor Khan and
Diljit Dosanjh, about two couples tryst with
in vitro fertilization.
Namrata Joshi opined, "Dosanjh and Advani are all about the amplification of the boisterous, kitschy Punjabi stereotype but they play it with an infectious cheer." Both
Kabir Singh and
Good Newwz grossed over each domestically, ranking among the
year's highest-grossing films. She won the
IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in
Good Newwz. In 2020, Advani starred in Johar's production
Guilty, a
Netflix film about sexual assault. She played Nanki Dutta, a troubled college student. While Ektaa Malik of
The Indian Express believed that she had been "reduced to the 'tortured-artistic-creative' types", Rohan Nahaar of
Hindustan Times commended her "absolutely electric performance as the unreliable Nanki". Advani was nominated for Best Actress in a Web Original Film at
Filmfare OTT Awards. She then played the wife of
Akshay Kumar's character in
Raghava Lawrence's horror comedy
Laxmii, in which Kumar's character gets possessed by a transgender ghost.
Laxmii was released digitally on
Disney+ Hotstar owing to the
COVID-19 pandemic, and met with negative reviews. Even so, it attained a strong viewership on the platform. In her final release of 2020, Advani starred in the unremarkable romantic comedy
Indoo Ki Jawani (2020). While praising her look and styling in the film,
The Times of Indias Ronak Kotecha was unimpressed with Advani's comic timing. It failed commercially. '' in 2022 Advani next featured in the war film
Shershaah (2021), based on the life of army officer
Vikram Batra (played by
Sidharth Malhotra), in which she played Dimple Cheema, Batra's girlfriend. The film released digitally on
Amazon Prime Video, on which it became the most-streamed Indian film.
Anna M. M. Vetticad of
Firstpost opined that Advani "sparkles" in her brief role. She received a nomination for the
Filmfare Award for Best Actress. The following year, she appeared with
Tabu and
Kartik Aaryan in the comedy horror film
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. Shalini Langer of
The Indian Express wrote that she "has little to do except pop up now and then". The film emerged as one of her most commercially successful, with worldwide earnings of over . Advani starred alongside an ensemble cast in
Jugjugg Jeeyo, a comedy-drama about divorce, in which
Varun Dhawan and her played an unhappily married couple. Writing for
Hindustan Times, Monika Rawal Kukreja commended her "restrained performance" in it. It earned worldwide. She then starred in the comic thriller
Govinda Naam Mera, with
Vicky Kaushal and
Bhumi Pednekar, which released digitally on
Disney+ Hotstar.
Sukanya Verma of
Rediff.com opined that "Kiara Advani's energy is capable of far more heavy lifting than it gets credit for." Advani reunited with
Kartik Aaryan in
Satyaprem Ki Katha (2023), a romantic drama about a troubled marriage.
Scroll.in's Nandini Ramnath found her "sensitive, soulful" performance to be "affecting", adding that she "displays further evidence of her growing confidence". It emerged as a modest commercial success. Advani received several Best Actress awards and nominations at various ceremonies including her second Filmfare nomination. In 2025, Advani starred in two action films,
Game Changer and
War 2, each made on a budget, making them among the
most expensive Indian films ever made. In
Game Changer, a Telugu action film directed by
S. Shankar, Advani starred opposite
Ram Charan.
Firstpost Vinamra Mathur bemoaned that she had been wasted in an "inconsequential romantic track". Despite disliking the film, Sangeetha Devi of
The Hindu credited Advani for trying to "deliver the best" she can in a role that "occasionally goes beyond being decorative". Advani starred as a wing commander opposite
Hrithik Roshan in
Ayan Mukerji's
War 2, set in the
YRF Spy Universe. In a negative review for
The Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta lamented the absence of "an actual fleshed-out role" for Advani in what she described as a "boys-and-their-toys flick". Similarly,
News18’s Titas Chowdhury noted that the actress had been "relegated to the periphery," though she praised her skill in the action sequences.
War 2 had the highest opening weekend of Advani's career, yet both it and
Game Changer emerged as box-office bombs. She will next star opposite
Yash in the
Kannada action film
Toxic. == Personal life ==