Sushma began her career as a singer with
All India Radio and a dancer during her teenage years, before becoming involved in the Hindi theatre circuit, where she worked on Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi performances. In 1977, Sushma relocated to
Madras with her family as a result of her husband's job, and then worked closely with a theatre group called "Abhudhay", which performed Hindi, Tamil and English shows. She became acquainted with film makers including
Singeetham Srinivasa Rao and
L. V. Prasad who encouraged her to take up film direction, so she subsequently apprenticed under
Balu Mahendra,
T. Rama Rao and
Yash Chopra on a number of films. Sushmaa has been credited as an actress, writer and director in films. Notably, she directed an animated series titled
Tara Ki Duniya for DD Metro, and
Uyirodu Uyiraga (1998), a romantic drama featuring
Ajith Kumar and her daughter
Richa Ahuja. The film released to positive reviews, with a critic noting that the film was "a clean movie with no masala stuff" but criticized the "weak story-line". Another critic drew particular praise to the role of
Srividya, claiming the film was "a pleasant experience, the crowds cheered Srividya almost as much as Ajith". The film failed commercially, with Sushma Ahuja blaming the result on poor promotion. She has worked on the script for films including
Little John (2001) and
Ek Alag Mausam (2003). Her acting roles include appearances in
M. Night Shyamalan's English film
Praying with Anger (1992) and Sridevi's television series
Malini Iyer (2004). ==Personal life==