[1][2] Born in a Sindhi family in Bombay, he made his debut in B. R. Ishara's Kaagaz Ki Nao (1975) and appeared in more than 100 films until the mid-90s.

[3] Later he disappeared from the industry and was thought to be living as a recluse in the United States but conflicting reports from 2011 indicated his whereabouts were unknown.

[9] While Raj Kiran was often typecast as a kind-hearted romantic because of his chocolate good looks[3][10] he has also played some roles with gray shades as in Justice Chaudhury (1983).

Raj Kiran is rumored to have gone into acute depression when his career declined and faced several domestic crises and was admitted to a mental asylum in Mumbai.

Deepti Naval tried to look for the missing actor through Facebook writing on her timeline "Looking for a friend from the film world his name is Raj Kiran – we have no news of him – last heard he was driving a cab in NY city if anyone has any clue, please tell .

In June 2011, Rishi Kapoor, on a trip to the United States made a phone call to the missing actor's brother Gobind Mahtani, and was told that Raj Kiran was in a mental asylum in Atlanta but was not given more details.