I think this was perhaps her plan all along. Here’s (I’ll link it too) an old interview of hers from before she even met Virat and she says in 20 years she would be retired and married.
Where do you see yourself 20 years from now?
Retired and married with children.
She was never a bad actress but I don’t know if for any of her roles we can say no one else could have done that. She always came across as a strong personality to me so I don’t believe her in laws told her not to work anymore. I think she’s genuinely happy being a mother, wife, and just doing endorsements. There were even rumors that both her and her brother wanted Tripti for the role of Jhulan but she turned it down. So she didn’t want to do that initially either. By all accounts her current status seems to be a 100% by her own choice.
Here’s the old interview
https://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-interview-with-anushka-sharma/20110208.htm
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