Naidu was born on 19 September 1980 in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India. Her father Ethiraj works for Air India and was a tennis coach and her mother Purnima, was a school Teacher. She has one younger sister, Sona. She told that she requested her mother to quit her job and accompany her to shooting locations, after her sister who used to travel with her got a job abroad. She grew up in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and considers herself "more of a Mumbaiite". She studied at Bhavan's College, Andheri, Mumbai, and graduated with a B.Com degree. She learned classical bharatanatyam dance for seven years. She stated that she also was coaching tennis in the US for four years.
At the age of 18, she met a model co-ordinator at the wedding of her cousin in Chennai, who called her for a screen test for a feature film. She secured a role in the Telugu film Prema Sakshi (1999), following which she appeared in one more Telugu and two Kannada films. She then appeared in UMI10's music video "Kaliyon Ka Chaman", directed by Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru, which she says happened by accident. She was accompanying her friend to the audition for the video, when she was approached by the team. She was asked to send in her photographs and within few days, she was selected for the video. "Kaliyon Ka Chaman" became a grand success and gained her recognition. She subsequently went on to do many stage performances in and outside of India.
She made her Bollywood debut with the B-grade film Hawas (2004), which dealt with extramarital affair. It was followed by lead roles in Classic Dance of Love (2005), which featured her as a Dancer, and Rain: The Terror Within... (2005), in which she played a blind author. In Mashooka, she played a character with negative shades. In her latter career, she mostly made special appearances in item numbers in South Indian films.
Naidu has been in a relationship with tennis player Luis Miguel Reis since 2011.
