She started her film through the Kannada film Sajni, opposite Dhyan and had her first commercial success with the film Krishna opposite Ganesh. Her other hit films include Navagraha (2008), Venkata in Sankata (2009) and Swayamvara (2010), having done so she has established herself as a leading contemporary actress in Kannada cinema. 2011 she was seen in Dhan Dhana Dhan, which remains her most recent Kannada release.

In 2012 she debuted in Tamil with the film Mirattal, a remake of the Telugu hit film Dhee, and got accolades for her performance in the film. She immediately went on to sign her first Telugu film Kevvu Keka opposite Allari Naresh. In 2013, she changed her name from Sharmila to Sharmiela. In December 2014, it was announced that Sharmeila was selected to play the protagonist in the Khalid Mohammed's directorial Katha which would be a remake of the same titled film released in 1983. It was reported that she would play the role played by Deepti Naval. After a brief hiatus, she made her came back to Kannada cinema in 2015 with Mumtaz opposite Dharma Keerthiraj which was a commercial success.

In 2017, she started a new project with Chiranjeevi Sarja titled Aake, a horror story, which is a remake of Tamil film Maya (2015), and her role was essayed by Nayantara. Subsequently, she made a special appearance as a journalist doing a dance number in the Shivarajkumar starrer Leader.^[5][6] In January 2017, she was reported to be working on her second Tamil film.^[7]