As the 2000s arrived, Bollywood shifted to NRI romances and item songs. Manisha’s intense, arthouse style felt mismatched. Films like (where she played a gangster’s stoic wife) and "Escape from Taliban" (2003) were critical successes but box-office disappointments. She experimented with regional cinema (Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali) but struggled to find footing in Mumbai. The popular videos from this era are fewer, but her song "Ye Dil" from "Mumbai Meri Jaan" (2008) —a film about the 7/11 train bombings—reminds us she never lost her ability to convey profound grief.
However, after Saudagar , she faced a brief professional setback with a string of less successful films, which even led to her being unkindly labeled a "jinx". Her career experienced a major turnaround with the release of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 1942: A Love Story (1994). Her portrayal of Priya, a young woman caught in a tragic romance during India's independence struggle, was critically acclaimed and marked her arrival as a leading actress. As the 2000s arrived, Bollywood shifted to NRI