Lalita Pawar was a veteran film actress of Indian cinema who had a long-spanning career of over seven hundred films in various languages. Pawar began her career with leading roles in Hindi films of the 1930s and 40s, but soon moved on to play critically acclaimed character roles through many decades that ended well into 1990s. During this time, the prolific actress played a wide array of roles and delivered many hits such as Himmat-e-Marda (1935), Ram Shastri (1944), Anari (1959), Shri 420 (1955), Professor (1962), Anand (1970), and Naseeb (1981). Born in Maharashtra into a well-to-do merchant family, Pawar began her career in films as a child artist during the silent era with the film Ganimi Kawa (1928). For the first few years of her career, she worked in a series of stunt films such as Champion of the Sword (1930), and Chatur Sundari (1930). Her other films during the time include Shri Balaji (1929), and Pyari Katar (1933). She also produced and acted in the film, Kailash (1932), a silent film, and later went on to produce, Duniya Kya Hai (1938), a talkie film. In 1939, Pawar starred in Marathi film, Netaji Palkar (1939), which is considered to be a milestone in the history of Marathi cinema. While at the prime of her career, Pawar was slapped by another veteran actor, Bhagwan Dada, while shooting a scene in the film, Jung-e-Azadi. An accidental strong stoke caused permanent damage to Pawar's eye. As a result, she was forced to shift to character roles.

As a character actor, Lalita Pawar exemplified immense appreciation in films like Daag (1952), Sujata (1959), Hum Dono (1961), Khandan (1966) and Anari (1959). Anari (1959) won Pawar a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing the kind-hearted but strict role of Mrs. L. D'Sa. Over the next few decades, she established herself within Hindi and Marathi cinema and epitomized roles of the matriarch or evil mother-in-law figure in a number of films. Pawar mobilized her acting talents and geared it towards a persona that defined the family-centric narratives and the nuanced character types within it.

In 1961, Pawar was honoured by the Government of India as the First Lady of Indian Cinema.

Pawar worked in films till the 1990s, including Laash (1998), and Bhai (1997). After a long and fruitful career, she finally died in 1998, at the age of 81. Her last appearance was on the film was Engineer No. 1 (1997) along with stars Govinda and Urvashi.