Shafi Inamdar received his early education at Pangari Dapoli, Ratnagiri, MS and at St. Joseph's High School in Umerkhadi (Dongri) in Mumbai, India, where he passed his S.S.C exam in 1958.

He has acted in numerous television shows, the most notable being Kundan Shah's Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, telecast on Doordarshan in the 80s which made him a household name.

Inamdar also directed a film titled Hum Dono, starring Nana Patekar, Rishi Kapoor and Pooja Bhatt.

The turning point in his career was Ismat Chugtai’s play Nila Kamra, which he staged as his first commercial production in Hindi.

In 1984 came India's most popular television sitcom Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, a comedy serial starring Shafi Inamdar in the main lead as the character Ranjeet Verma, Swaroop Sampat played his wife Renu while Rakesh Bedi played his brother-in-law Raja.

In 1983, he made first appearance on the Hindi screen in the Shashi Kapoor produced and Govind Nihalani directed film Vijeta, followed by the hard-hitting but popular Ardh Satya.

Shafi died on 13 March 1996 following a massive heart attack while watching the India vs Sri Lanka 1996 Cricket World Cup semifinal match.