The incident took place near Khalapur, over 60 km from Mumbai, when the Tata Safari car in which they were traveling to Pune rammed into a truck, said Raigad Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar.
Her husband Javed Akhtar was also in the car but did not suffer injuries, news agency ANI reported.
Photos of the incident show Shabana Azmi being helped out of the rear seats of the SUV, her face and eye swollen.
Such was the impact that the front passenger's side of the SUV was completely destroyed. A photo shows the bonnet of the car crumpled and the radiator and bonnet wrecked.
Sources at the hospital said that Azmi received injuries on her nose and back of her head. The doctors have performed CT scans and MRI scan, and are awaiting the chest X-ray report.
Azmi is scheduled to be shifted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital later.
Shabana Azmi, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 1998 and the National Film Award five times, is known for her work in several critically-acclaimed movies like Ankur, Arth and Mandi.
She was last seen in 2017's The Black Prince.