Farida Jalal, who was born on 14 March 1949 in New Delhi India, started her career in the 1960s when she won the United Film Producers Talent Hunt sponsored by Filmfare in 1965. She, along with Rajesh Khanna were chosen as finalists and were presented on stage as winners at the Filmfare Awards function. She got her first film offer for Taqdeer from Tarachand Barjatya who happened to be in the audience. In an interview in 2014, she said, when asked her about initial part of her career: "I started my acting career when I was just out of my school St Joseph's Convent in Panchgani, in a film called Taqdeer. I took part in a talent contest and even won. Kaka (Rajesh Khanna) and I were the finalists. How was I to know that I'd soon be doing a film Aradhana with him?".

Jalal started her career with Taqdeer (1967). She went on to play leading and supporting roles in numerous motion pictures through the 1970s and early 80s. She is widely remembered for her roles in Paras (1971), Henna (1991) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), all of which garnered the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. She became a household name after portraying motherly roles and strong female characters in the 1990s and the early 2000s. She has also won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance for her role in Mammo (1994). She won the Best Actress Award at the 2012 Harlem International Film Festival for her role in A Gran Plan (2012).

She usually played the sister or rejected fiancée of the male lead, but almost never the female lead. One of her most critically acclaimed roles is in Bobby, where she played the part of the mentally challenged would-be fiancée of Rishi Kapoor. During the 1980s, her roles progressed from sister and girlfriend to aunt, mother, or grandmother. She is also remembered for her part in Aradhana, in which she plays Rajesh Khanna's girlfriend, and sings the song "Bagon me bahar hai, kaliyon pe nikhar hai".

She acted for over 40 years, only taking a break during 1983 and 1990, when she settled in Bangalore.

During the 1990s, Jalal had a part in many major hits in India, among them Raja Hindustani, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil To Pagal Hai, Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, for which she won a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1995. Farida Jalal played the lead in the film Mammo. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Jalal won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance. She acted in many television serials, such as the hit sitcom Dekh Bahi Dekh.

She was grandly acclaimed for her role in the 1994 film Mammo, for which she received the Filmfare Best Performance Award. Earlier, she was also nominated multiple times for 'Best Supporting Actress Award', one for the Amitabh Bachchan-Parveen Babi-Pran starrer Majboor where she played Amitabh's handicapped sister.

Jalal was married to actor Tabrez Barmavar, who hails from Bhatkal and died in September 2003; they have a son named Yaseen. She met her husband on the sets of Jeevan Rekha and fell in love in the course of the film and got married in November 1978. As she wasn’t getting too many film offers after marriage, they moved to Bangalore where her husband had a soap factory Business. Her son Yaseen is not interested in acting, but direction and has been putting together a project that should be ready by 2016.

In 2005, she co-hosted the 50th Filmfare Awards alongside Saif Ali Khan and Sonali Bendre, in Mumbai. In 2008, she made a special appearance in the Punjabi film Yaariyan. Recently, she appeared in the soap opera Balika Vadhu.

In 2017, she was the victim of a death hoax. On 19 February, rumours did the rounds that she had died. Annoyed, the lady asked her publicist to put the rumours to rest.