She was active in the theatre scene while at university, forming a close friendship with fellow actor-director Satish Kaushik, who encouraged her to follow his lead and join the National School of Drama.

Gupta enrolled at NSD in 1977, studying under the tutelage of such greats as Ebrahim Alkazi and B.V. Karanth and graduated top of her class in 1980.

These performances further established her profile in Indian movies alongside her arthouse film contemporaries Rekha, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Dimple Kapadia.

Despite this, Gupta never had a major commercial hit and found it difficult to find more dramatic roles:[7] I made a few mistakes in the beginning of my career.

The following year, she achieved her breakthrough as a newly widowed daughter-in-law in the acclaimed drama Woh Chokri (1994), which won her the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Fed up with the lack of roles being written for middle-aged women in Bollywood, Gupta later reflected, "After that Instagram post, I got many offers -- five, in fact, and I accepted all of them.

"[7] One of the offers she accepted was Amit Sharma's comedy-drama Badhaai Ho (2018), in which she starred alongside Gajraj Rao, Ayushmann Khurrana and Sanya Malhotra.

Film critic Rajeev Masand credited Gupta for bringing "real empathy" to the part, while Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV described her portrayal as "outstandingly measured.

Badhaai Ho also emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office, grossing over ₹221.44 crore (US$32.38 million) worldwide, thus ranking as the ninth-highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.

Her big break on television came with Khandan (1985), Yatra (1986), Gulzar's Mirza Ghalib (1987), a TV miniseries, followed by Shyam Benegal's Bharat Ek Khoj (1988) and later Dard (1994), Gumraah (1995), Shrimaan Shrimati (1995), Saans, Saat Phere – Saloni Ka Safar (2005), Chitthi (2003), Meri Biwi Ka Jawab Nahin (2004).

She also hosted the Indian version of the TV series The Weakest Link, Kamzor Kadii Kaun and appeared in Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin which gave her considerable popularity.

She is now seen in Dil Se Diya Vachan as a doctor by profession and mother-in-law of the lead character Nandani which airs on Zee TV.