Desai was born in Bangalore to Gujarati Hindu father and Telugu Hindu mother. She is a graduate in Business Management with specialization in finance from National Institute of Management college. She is fluent in five languages—Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada, English and Hindi.

Desai first came into the limelight when she participated in the reality show contest Get Gorgeous. Although she did not win the contest, she was offered a contract with Elite Model India Management, which sponsors the reality show, before the eventual winner. She has been modeling since 2007 and has featured in over 100 commercials.

She made her acting debut in 2011 in Yeh Faasley. She later appeared in the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. In 2015, Desai had major roles in two high-profile English language projects, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,^[5] a sequel to the 2011 hit^[6] and the Netflix drama Sense8 by The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski in which she plays Kala Dandekar.

She posed for the 2012 Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar^[7] and starred in the Bollywood action thriller film Table No. 21 opposite Rajeev Khandelwal. She appeared in the romantic song "Yeh Kahan Mil Gaye Hum" with singer KK.

In 2016, she voiced the character of Ashima in the Thomas & Friends film The Great Race.^[8]

Film

Television