Mehra made his debut as a child actor in the 1955 film Adl-e-Jehangir at the age of ten.

He started his film career as an adult in 1971 with Ek Thi Reeta, a smash hit based on the English play, A Girl Called Rita, along with Tanuja.

This was followed by the film Parde Ke Peechey opposite debutant Yogeeta Bali followed by Elaan (with Rekha), Amar Prem (1971) and Lal Patthar, though it was only Shakti Samanta's Anuraag (1973) with Moushumi Chatterjee, which established him as an actor.

Later he mostly acted in multi-starrers as a secondary lead or played strong supporting roles such as a brother, friend, uncle, father and police officer.

He worked with all top actors like Sunil Dutt, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan.

His frequent female co-stars included Rekha, Moushumi Chatterjee, Yogeeta Bali, Shabana Azmi and Bindiya Goswami.

Some of his prominent films include Nagin, Jaani Dushman, Ghar, Swarg Narak, Kartavya, Saajan Bina Suhagan, Jurmana, Ek Hi Raasta, Ye Kaisa Insaaf Sweekar Kiya Maine and Khud-Daar.

He had an elder sister named Sharda who appeared in several films before Mehra started his career in 1970s.

Indeed, they were widely believed to have been married, but in a 2004 television interview with Simi Garewal, Rekha denied having ever been married to him, and referred to him affectionately as a well-wisher (but in Rekha's unofficial biography The Untold Story by Yasser Usman, it is mentioned that Vinod Mehra, Rekha's rumoured husband, took her to his house in Bombay, after getting married in Calcutta, and Vinod's mother pushed the actress away when the latter tried to touch her feet).