Radhika Apte is very much attracted to theater since her childhood. She worked hand in glove for Mohit Takalkar’s theatre troupe Aasakta in Pune. On one of the occasions, Actor Rahul Bose saw her play Bombay Black and recommended her to director Anirudh Roy Chowdury and thus she got her first film offer in Antaheen along with Aparna Sen, Sharmila Tagore and Rahul Bose. Later on she acted in handful of movies in Hindi, Marathi and Bengali.

The real break for Radhika came in 2010. Ram Gopal Varma had casted her opposite Vivek Oberoi in Rakta Charitra-1 and 2. The movie is based on a real story in Anantapuram, Andhra Pradesh. Radhika played the wife of a naxallite turned politician, Paritala Ravi who was later slain by his opponents. Both the versions were made in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi and got her good recognition. 

Radhika Apte later played the role of illegitimate wife of a politician in Prakash Raj’s Dhoni. The movie was also made in Telugu and Tamil. But the movie did not fare well commercially in 2012. In 2014, She was paired opposite Senior Telugu actor, Balakrishna in his blockbuster film, Legend. Despite the film ending up as biggest hit in Balakrishna's career, it did not give the required push to Radhika's career in Telugu.