In Sweden, Zakaria worked as model, dance teacher, choreographer and established a Bollywood Dance School called the Indisk Dans Studio. She moved to Mumbai in 2009 and began to model in ads for Set Wet, Layz and Coke. She performed an item number in the film "Nagaram" (2010), after the director saw a video of her dancing on YouTube. The film was a big breakthrough for Zakaria.