Sujata was born on 11 March 1959 in Navsari in Shrimali family to Rekha and Prahlad Rai, an Indian independence activist.
She started her career as a child actor at the age of 13 as a lead actress in a role of blind girl in English play Wait Until Dark.
[1] Her first big break came with N. Chandra's social film Pratighaat (1987) with Nana Patekar where she played a college teacher who is humiliated in public by gangsters.
She did not confine herself to a certain image and played a wide variety of roles in movies like Gunahon Ka Devta (1990), Gunehgar Kaun (1991), Pratigyabadh (1991),[1] Tyaagi (1992), Aaj ki Aurat (1993), Dhartiputra (1993), Hulchul (1995), Judge Mujrim (1997), Meri Mohabbat Mera Nasiba (1995) and Jung (1996).
[1] She was a part of several Indian TV soap operas, playing the roles of a mother in Ye Meri Life Hai (2004) and Kyaa Hoga Nimmo Kaa (2006).