Shetty made her acting debut in Puri Jagannath's 2005 Telugu film Super alongside Akkineni Nagarjuna. The same year, she acted in another film Mahanandi, which was an unsuccessful venture. In 2006, she had four releases, the first being S. S. Rajamouli's Vikramarkudu opposite Raviteja, in which she portrayed the character Neeraja Goswami. The film went on to become very successful and got her much recognition, that eventually made her very popular in Andhra Pradesh. She next had starred in the film Astram, a remake of the 1999 Hindi film Sarfarosh, following which she debuted in the Tamil film industry, acting in the Sundar C.-directed action flick Rendu, sharing screen space with R. Madhavan. Later that year, she made a special appearance in A. R. Murugadoss' directorial debut in Telugu, Stalin.
