She is the ambassador for brands and products, has designed her own line of clothing for women, named Nush, and supports various charities and causes, including gender equality and animal rights.

[citation needed] In 2007, Sharma made her runway debut at the Lakme Fashion Week for designer Wendell Rodricks's Les Vamps Show and was picked to be his finale model at the Spring Summer 2007 Collection.

[15][16] Sharma made her acting debut in Aditya Chopra's romantic drama Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008), opposite Shah Rukh Khan.

[14] She was signed for a three-film deal with the company and landed the leading role of Tani Sahni, a young bride to a middle-aged man, portrayed by Khan.

Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times found her to be "assured and upright" in the film,[17] but Nikhat Kazmi thought that she "lacks all chutzpah and can barely hold your attention".

[citation needed] Two years later, Sharma played the leading lady in the crime-comedy Badmaash Company, directed by Parmeet Sethi and co-starring Shahid Kapoor, Vir Das and Meiyang Chang.

[22] Trade analysts expressed doubt on Band Baaja Baaraat's financial prospect, citing the middling response to Yash Raj Films' last few productions, the lack of a male star, and saying that by then Sharma was an "almost-forgotten" actress.

[25] The critic Anupama Chopra wrote that Sharma "comes into her own as the ambitious Delhi girl, who dreams of upgrading to multi-crore Sainik Farms weddings".

[27] Sharma's first venture not to be produced by Yash Raj Films was the drama Patiala House (2011) directed by Nikkhil Advani and co-starring Akshay Kumar.

Rajeev Masand wrote that Sharma "brings a spark to the film",[31] but Raja Sen disagreed and said that "while Anushka can indeed play spunky, she needed here to tone it down several notches".

Critic Saibal Chatterjee wrote that Sharma plays "a feisty poetry-loving girl who knows her mind far more than most Hindi film heroines are allowed to" and praised her for "hold[ing] her own" against Khan.

[44] Sharma launched a production company named Clean Slate Filmz in 2013, whose first release was Navdeep Singh's thriller NH10 (2015), in which she also played the lead role.

[45] Screened at the 5th Beijing International Film Festival, it tells the story of a married couple whose lives are endangered after an encounter with a group of criminals.

[47] Saibal Chatterjee found the film to be a "taut and riveting thriller" and praised Sharma for "conveying a range of moods as she moves from the vulnerable to the fearless in a battle in which the odds are stacked heavily against her",[48] and Prarthana Sarkar of International Business Times credited her for breaking away from her romantic comedy image.

[50] In Anurag Kashyap's period crime drama Bombay Velvet (2015), (based on the historian Gyan Prakash's book Mumbai Fables) co-starring Ranbir Kapoor and Karan Johar, Sharma was cast as a jazz singer, Rosie Noronha.

[51] She also used temporary lip enhancers for the part, citing it as the reason behind her changed appearance on a chat show in 2014, and refuted media speculation about having undergone plastic surgery.

"[65] However, Suprateek Chatterjee of The Huffington Post felt that she was unconvincing as a wrestler, writing that "she possesses literally zero muscles and somehow always finds the time to get her make-up just right.

[66] Sharma achieved further success later that year when she played the lead female role of Alizeh Khan, a free-spirited girl in a loveless relationship in Karan Johar's romantic drama Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai.

[74][75] She next collaborated with Shah Rukh Khan for the third time in Imtiaz Ali's Jab Harry Met Sejal, a romance about a Gujrati tourist (Sharma) in Europe who falls in love with her tour guide.

Commenting on Sharma's performances in Phillauri and Jab Harry Met Sejal, Uday Bhatia of Mint praised her ability for "straight-faced com[edy]".

It tells the story of Rukhsana (Sharma), a battered young woman living in the wilderness, who is rescued by a benevolent man (played by Parambrata Chatterjee).

[81][82] Sharma next played a biographer documenting the life of the troubled actor Sanjay Dutt in Rajkumar Hirani's biopic Sanju, starring Ranbir Kapoor in the title role.

[85] In the same year, Sharma teamed with Yash Raj Films for the eighth time in Sui Dhaaga, a comedy-drama co-starring Varun Dhawan, about a poor, young couple who begin their own small-scale clothing industry.

[87] Sharma's final film appearance of the year was in Zero, a drama about a dwarf's romantic tribulations involving two women, which reunited her with Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif.

[95][96] Anna M. M. Vetticad found recurring themes of "feminism and the paranormal" in several of her company's projects, and credited Sharma for her "courageous, non-conformist" choices as a producer.

[118] She participated in the opening ceremony of the 2015 Indian Premier League held at Kolkata, along with other celebrities including Hrithik Roshan, Shahid Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Farhan Akhtar and composer Pritam.

[121] That same year, she appeared alongside other celebrities in a commercial, produced by the National Film Development Corporation of India, to create awareness about the 'Right to Education' for children.

[122] In December 2014, Sharma auctioned the leather jacket she wore in Jab Tak Hai Jaan on eBay, with proceeds going to the redevelopment of the flood-ravaged states of Kashmir and Assam.

"[135] Kalpana Nair of Firstpost stated: "actresses like Sharma command the respect they do in a largely conservative and male-dominated industry and the fact that their fan base grows when they take on roles that are not conventional is good reason for us to beam widely and walk with a spring in our step".

[144] GQ termed her "feisty and fearless" and wrote, "She's been lauded for her powerhouse performances as an actor, and as a producer, she's constantly seeking to push mainstream boundaries.