She made her debut in the Telugu film "Egire Paavurama" (1996), directed by S. V. Krishna Reddy. Laila began to receive offers from prominent directors to feature in Tamil films and turned down films such as "Dharma Chakkaram" and "Kadhal Palli" by K. S. Ravikumar and Pavithran respectively. She subsequently signed on to appear in the lead role in "VIP" after Pooja Kumar had walked out of the project. However, Laila was left unimpressed when the producer asked her to consider changing her stage name to Pooja, as the invitations for the film had already been printed, and furthermore, she revealed that she was unaware of Rambha also being a heroine in the film. Laila subsequently dropped out of the project, wanting to make her Tamil debut in a film where she played the sole heroine.