Meet Smita Patil
One of the finest actresses of Indian cinema, but never got the same recognition in commercial cinema because of her unconventional looks and lack of glamour. Problem arose when it started affecting her work in art films as well.
Smita was replaced by Shabana Azmi from the National Award winning film Sparsh because the producers wanted a more saleable face to sell the film to distributors at good price. Shabana Azmi was more popular commercially with films like Amar Akbar Anthony, Fakira and Parvarish etc. This exclusion hurt Smita so badly that she decided to work in commercial cinema and prove her commercial viability. She signed films like Shakti, Namak Halal, Chatpati, Badle ki Aag etc. Problem was that she couldn't adjust to the commercial style of filmmaking. She was so disturbed by the picturization of Aaj Rapat Jaaye from Namak Halaal that she was in tears saying “I didn't came to films to do this”. Otherwise also her performance and dance in films like Badle ki Aag was heavily criticized and she said that she can't dance with latke jhatke and thumkas as Reena Roy can.
Shabana Azmi herself faced the same problem. She came with a bang in the industry winning a National award but she was very awkward working in commercial films. During Fakira, she had to do a romantic scene with Shashi Kapoor and she couldn't do the typical romantic heroine role, she was also in tears. Also she remembers she was badly scolded by the dance master during the shooting of Parvarish because she was dancing alongside Neetu Singh who was trained in Bollywood style dancing.
Many actresses who were labelled with non glamorous image tried to change their image end up losing their credibility as a performer because more often than not they are not accepted in glamorous roles by the audience.