Sharma, after finishing her schooling, made her acting debut with a leading role in the 2008 Hindi horror film, 1920, a box office success.

[4] Her mother Sheila Sharma, a Malayali and native of Nattupura, Palakkad, Kerala, is an Indian classical dancer and mallakhamba yoga practitioner.

[6] Trying to break into the film industry, Sharma auditioned for several roles, but was rejected either because of her curly hair or because the casting directors felt that she looked too young.

[19] She eventually landed the lead female role in the 2008 Hindi horror film 1920 opposite Rajneesh Duggal which was directed by Vikram Bhatt.

While Sujata Chakrabarti wrote that "not even for a minute does she exude the intensity of being a psychic",[30] Sify's Sonia Chopra stated that she was "the only one in the film who can act".

[15] Sharma received positive remarks for her performance in Heart Attack, with The Times of India writing that she "looks like a natural actress and does a decent job" while 123telugu.com felt that she had made a "stunning debut".

[37] Her next two films, the Telugu family drama S/O Satyamurthy, in which she was cast opposite Allu Arjun and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and was directed by Trivikram Srinivas, and the Pavan Wadeyar's action thriller Rana Vikrama,[38] alongside Puneeth Rajkumar and Anjali, her first Kannada project, released on consecutive days in April 2015.

[36] At the 5th edition of Indian Federation for Fashion Development's India Runway Week, Sharma dazzled in a beautiful lehenga as she walked the ramp for Shravan Kumar.

Her final release of the year was the romantic comedy Idhu Namma Aalu, her first Tamil film, in which she had a small role and also performed an item number on the song "King Kong", which topped the charts in South India and her dance moves as well as pairing with Silambarasan was praised.

[48] Anuj Kumar of The Hindu noted, "Adah Sharma delivers an earnest performance and captures the pain of the vulnerable Shalini who is robbed of her innocence but retains her spine.

[50] In an interview to NDTV, Sharma shared her views on pervasive nepotism in the film industry calling it "a huge rock wall" which sometimes an outsider gets through, by finding small cracks.