Sarika started her film career as a child actor at the age of 5,[4] playing the role of a boy, Master Sooraj, during the 1960s in  Bollywood. Her most notable and popular appearance as a child artist was  in the year 1967 in the musical superhit Hamraaz, where she was seen as the daughter of Vimi named baby saarika. She appeared in many children's movies. Later, she moved on to films with Rajshri Productions Geet Gaata Chal with Sachin, with whom she starred in many Hindi and Marathi films.

In Sarika's acting career, she was often cast as a "westernized  girl" in films due to her Non-Indian looks. She gave birth to a baby  girl, Shruti Hassan in 1986. She gave up her acting career after her marriage to Kamal Haasan and moved to Chennai with him during the peak of her career. After  separating from her husband, she made a comeback in Hindi films. She  played Ipsita Ray Chakraverti in the film Sacred Evil – A True Story which failed at the box office.

In year 2000, Sarika won the National Film Award for Best Costume Design for the film Hey Ram. Her performance in Parzania in which she plays the role of a Zoroastrian woman who loses her child during the 2002 riots of India, earned her the National Film Award for Best Actress. Khalid Mohamed wrote for Hindustan Times of her performance, "Sarika is marvellously restrained and lifelike, making you care for Parzania straight from the heart."[5]

Sarika has starred as Sheetal Thadani in the movie Bheja Fry (2006), where she played the wife of Rajat Kapoor. She also had a small but important role in Manorama Six Feet Under. Her latest movie is Shoebite, which has been delayed for production, where she stars opposite Amitabh Bachchan.