In 2002, Pancholi had his next major release with a supporting role in Vipul Amrutlal Shah's heist thriller Aankhen, which featured an ensemble cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Sushmita Sen and Paresh Rawal. The film was a hit at the box office and emerged as one of the highest-grossing films of the year. Pancholi collaborated with Sanjay Gupta for the fifth time in the 2004 action thriller Musafir, essaying the role of the main antagonist opposite Anil Kapoor, Sameera Reddy, Mahesh Manjrekar, Koena Mitra, Shakti Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt. The movie was an average grosser and received negative reviews, but Pancholi received positive reviews for his performance, with Taran Adarsh labelling his performance "first-rate".