This tomboyish daughter of Shobhana Samarth and sister of Nutan, Tanuja started with small roles and slowly graduated into a full-fledged heroine of 60s and 70s. She had no inhibitions in playing small roles with lots of substance. She did not have inhibitions in playing character roles. She indeed was a true actress.

Some of Tanuja's initial films were Raj Kapoor's 'Sapno Ka Saudagar', 'Jewel Thief' and the likes. But her sizzling song 'Raat Akeli Hai...' Stole many hearts and helped her in establishing a career of her own. She continued doing films like 'Jeene Ki Raah', 'Jeeyo Aur Jeene Do', 'Do Chor', 'Mom Ki Gudiya', 'Mere Jeevan Saathi', 'Humshakal', 'Imtihaan' and 'Haathi Mera Saathi'. Her co-stars mostly were Dev Anand, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Rajesh Khanna. She took to character roles as fish takes to water and did films after films as a character actress.