‘Had made peace with leaving’: Yami Gautam almost gave up on Bollywood before Uri and Bala

4 min readNew DelhiJul 30, 2026 06:39 PM IST Yami Gautam almost quit Bollywood before Uri.Though Yami Gautam made a successful debut with Vicky Donor in 2012, the actor faced a slump in roles soon after. In a recent interview, Yami recalled almost quitting the film industry and returning to Himachal Pradesh, right before her career turned around with back-to-back hits Uri: The Surgical Strike and Bala. During a chat with Filmfare, Yami, who has been in the film industry for around 18 years, got candid about how her journey wasn’t very smooth after featuring in Vicky Donor opposite Ayushmann Khurrana. “Not at all. When Vicky Donor worked, I genuinely believed people would simply see me as an actor. Instead, I kept hearing that mine wasn’t a ‘conventional launch.’ I remember thinking, ‘What