 Her mother quit her airlines job to be a full-time chaperone as Padmini picked up more roles.Her most famous child role was playing a child in Raj Kapoor's 1977 film "Satyam Shivam Sundaram".Her success led to her most controversial role in "Insaaf Ka Tarazu" (1980), a remake of "Lipstick" (1976), where she played the rape victim that was originally played by Mariel Hemingway.