A "woman of rare mettle", she staged a hunger strike in 1939 at the Prabhat Studios gate following a disagreement regarding a clause in her contract.

[citation needed] Cited as a "domestic guerrilla" following her roles in films like Kunku/Duniya Na Mane, she became an inspirational role-model for a generation of college students.

[6] She was also one of the earliest Indian cinema actors to write her autobiography Jau Mi Cinemat (Should I join Films) in Marathi.

[citation needed] Born in 1916 in Dudhni, Maharashtra, India,[7] in a Maharashtrian Brahmin family, Apte was the daughter of a station master.

[10] Apte started her acting career when she was discovered at the age of nine years by Baburao Pendharkar and then cast in the Bhalji Pendharkar-directed film Shyamsunder.

[12] Apte rendered four solo songs under the music direction of Keshavrao Bhole, including the first recorded filmi ghazal, "Kamsini Mein Dil Pe Gham Ka".

In 1946, Apte acted in four films with Subhadra being a "mythological comedy", which was produced and directed by Master Vinayak and co-starred Yakub, Ishwarlal and Lata Mangeshkar.

Shanta Apte thus had the rare distinction of singing and acting with the three "iconic female singers" of Indian cinema: with M. S. Subbulakshmi in Savithri (1941), with Noor Jehan in Duhai (1943) and with Lata Mangeshkar in Subhadra (1946).

Her last two films were in Hindi, Chandi Puja starring Nirupa Roy, Manhar Desai and Prem Adib and directed by Raman B. Desai, and the last released film Ram Bhakta Vibhishan in 1958,[4] directed by Samar Chatterjee, with the same star cast as Chandi Puja.

[19] Apte died of a heart attack following a six-month illness, on 24 February 1964, at her residence in Andheri, Mumbai, Maharashtra.