Radhika Apte was born in Vellore of Tamil Nadu. She debuted in cinema in 2005 as Anjali in the Hindi film Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi! Ratha Charithra 1 and 2 pushed her popularity further. She made her Tamil debut in 2012 with the Prakash Raj directorial Dhoni. Post that, she was seen in some Tamil films such as All in All Alaguraja, Vetrichelvan, Kabali and Chithiram Pesuthadi 2.
Radhika Apte played the role of a sex worker in the 2015 Bollywood film Parched that was bankrolled by Ajay Devgn. While she was about to act in that film, a nude video of hers had gone viral and reports claimed it was her in the video. The clip was from Radhika's film Clean Shaven and the actress had said that she was not the one in it.
Talking about her role in Parched, the Kabali actress was quoted by Grazia magazine as saying, “I really needed a role like this because when you’re in Bollywood you’re constantly told what to do with your body and I always maintained that I would never do anything to my body or face. When a nude clip of mine leaked, while I was filming Clean Shaven, I was trolled badly, and it did affect me. I couldn’t step out of the house for four days, not because of what the media was saying but because my driver, watchman, and my stylist’s driver recognised me from the images."