Antara Mali is the daughter of noted photographer Jagdish Mali.
Mali made her acting debut in the 1999 film Prema Katha (directed by Ram Gopal Varma). Varma became her frequent collaborator and went onto make several movies with her, as he did with actress Urmila Matondkar. Although she was critically acclaimed for her performances in each of her films she quit acting after her last film Mr Ya Miss (2005) (which she had also written and directed) failed to do well and was critically panned. She paid her tribute to the Bollywood legend Madhuri Dixit, by playing an aspiring actress inspired by Madhuri in the movie Main Madhuri Diixit Banna Chahti Hoon.