She made her debut in the Telugu film Egire Paavurama (1996) directed by S V Krishna Reddy. Laila began to receive offers from prominent directors to feature in Tamil films and turned down films such as Dharma Chakkaram and Kadhal Palli by K S Ravikumar and Pavithran respectively. She subsequently signed on to appear in the lead role in VIP after Pooja Kumar had walked out of the project. However, Laila was left unimpressed when the producer asked her to consider changing her stagename to Pooja, as the invitations for the film had already been printed, and furthermore, she revealed that she was unaware of Rambha also being a heroine in the film. Laila subsequently dropped out of the project, wanting to make her Tamil debut in a film where she played the sole heroine.

The Mumbai-based Laila then worked with Ajith in Dheena and Parthen Rasithen with Prashanth.

Then came Dhill and Pithamagan with Vikram. In between, Laila took a break and went back to Mumbai. However, she returned to Kollywood with a big bang. Her role in the movie Ullam Ketkumae won her accolades from the masses. She was one of the successful Tamil actresses for a brief time.

She got married to Mehdi, an Irani businessman, on 6 January 2006. She dated him for 8 years before marriage. According to Laila, they were engaged for four years before marriage. The couple has two sons, aged 6 and 8. She is Goan but speaks English, Malayalam, Tamil and French at home and she is a Roman Catholic.