In 2006, Chawla appeared in the Tamil film Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, alongside real-life couple Surya and Jyothika which became a big hit worldwide, while playing a vital role in the Hindi film Family - Ties of Blood, in which she shared screen space with Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar, and starring in the Telugu fantasy film, Mayabazar. Following this, she acted in the Hindi film Gandhi, My Father as Gulab Gandhi and played the title roles in the Telugu films Sathyabhama, in which she played a woman who suffers from Short-term memory loss, and Anasuya, a crime thriller, and in the Bhojpuri film, Gangotri (2007 film), a sequel to the successful 2006 Bhojpuri film Ganga, acting again alongside Amitabh Bachchan. Her performance in Anasuya (2007), as an Investigative Journalist who covers the case of a serial killer, received critical acclaim. She was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu and won the Santosham Best Actress Award.