She participated and won the singing of Sun TV, "Saptasawarangal", following which she was introduced by Singer Srinivas to film composer Mr. A. R. Rahman. Chinmayi's playback singing career began with her performance of Rahman's "Oru Dheivam Thanta Poove" for the film "Kannathil Muthamittal". After a couple of years of singing exclusively for Tamil, Telugu, Tulu and Malayalam films, she made her Bollywood debut in "" with the song "Holi Re". About a year later, she garnered more recognition with her performances of "Tere Bina" and "Mayya" in the movie "Guru". In 2007, the song "Beda Beda" marked her first venture into Kannada playback singing. She has since received critical acclaim for songs such as "Oru Dheivam Thantha Poove", "Sahana", "Vaarayo Vaarayo", "Kilimanjaro", "Sara Sara", "Asku Laska" and "Kaathale Kaathale". She has also sung in Marathi language in movies such as "sairat". Chinmayi as of date has to her credit over 1,000 songs in eight different languages.