Sharda was born in Perth, Western Australia to Hema Sharda, and Nalin Kant Sharda. Both her parents are IIT alumni and have PhDs in science and engineering. They migrated to Australia in the 1980s before she was born. Sharda came to Melbourne as a toddler where she grew up in the outer north-western suburbs. She went to school at Lowther Hall in Essendon where she obtained an academic scholarship and commenced her LLB and BA (Media & Communications) & Diploma in Modern Languages (French) at the University of Melbourne, at the age of 16 and graduated with honours. Sharda shifted base from Melbourne to Mumbai in 2010.

Sharda started her Bollywood career by playing a cameo in Karan Johar’s My Name Is Khan (2010). In March 2010 Sharda was crowned Miss India Australia in Sydney. She next starred in the comedic-drama film, Dus Tola (2010) opposite acclaimed actor Manoj Bajpayee, in which she played the role of Geeta, a village dance teacher. Sharda’s performance was identified as the best element of the film by The Times of India. In 2011 and 2012 Sharda was the lead actress of the theatrical musical, Taj Express directed by Shruti Merchant and choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant.

Sharda made her Australian film debut with comedy film Save Your Legs, which released on 28 February 2013. She then appeared in Abhinav Kashyap’s Bollywood film Besharam. in which she portrayed a woman whose car is stolen by a petty thief. Sharda’s next Bollywood venture, Hawaizaada, was released worldwide on 30 January 2015. Directed by Vibhu Puri and co-starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Mithun Chakraborty, the film is inspired by the true events of Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, who is believed to have flown an unmanned aircraft in 1895 Bombay. Sharda received critical acclaim for her portrayal of a courtesan dancer during the British Raj era in Mumbai.

Sharda is on the board of advisers for e-Kutir, a social entrepreneurship company focused on improving the lives of Indians using the ‘base of pyramid’ model. Her focus areas are Sanitation and Mother and Child. Sharda is a regular keynote speaker on Asia Literacy in Australia, cross-cultural relations between India and Australia and women’s empowerment in India. In 2015 she was appointed the “Queen of Moomba”, Melbourne’s largest community festival, alongside retired Australian cricketer Shane Warne.

Sharda joined Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman in the Hollywood film Lion in 2016. Her next Bollywood film, Begum Jaan, released in April 2017. Sharda received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Gulabo, a sex worker in rural Punjab, at the time of Pakistan’s partition from India.

Considered a distinguished alumnus of the University of Melbourne, Pallavi has emerged as a multi-faceted leader in the conversation around Australian Arts and Culture. Pallavi has curated festivals like Melbourne’s White Night, been the Queen of Moomba with Spin King Shane Warne and in 2019 Pallavi was named on the list of forty most influential Asian Australians at the inaugural Asian-Australian Leadership Summit.