Kajal was born in Mumbai to Vinay Agarwal, an entrepreneur, and Suman Agarwal, a confectioner. She is of Punjabi descent. She has a younger sister, Nisha Aggarwal, who is also an actress appearing in Telugu and Tamil films. She studied at St. Anne's High School, Colaba, Mumbai and Jai Hind College, Mumbai. She graduated from K.C. College, Mumbai with a degree in Mass Media. She started her modelling career while she was still in college. She was planning on pursuing MBA in Brand Management before deciding to pursue acting.
Kajal made her acting debut in the 2004 Bollywood film Kyun...! Ho Gaya Na, in which she enacted a minor supporting role as the friend of Diya, following which she signed veteran Tamil director Bharathiraja's Bommalattam, alongside Arjun Sarja. The film, however, got delayed and released in late 2008.
She made her debut in the Telugu film industry and played her first leading role in 2007 in Teja's Lakshmi Kalyanam alongside Kalyan Ram, which did not fare well at the box office. Later that year, she appeared in the Krishna Vamsi-directed film Chandamama, which opened to positive reviews and became her first major successful film. In 2008, she had her first Tamil film release, Perarasu's action entertainer Pazhani, co-starring Bharath. Following this film, she had two more Tamil releases that year with Venkat Prabhu’s comedy-thriller Saroja, in which she did a guest appearance, and Bharathiraja’s investigative thriller Bommalattam. Although the former went on to become a commercial as well as a critical success, both films failed to boost her career as her roles were too insignificant. Both her Telugu releases, Pourudu and Aatadista opposite Sumanth and Nitin, respectively, neither received positive reviews while the former was successful at the box office.
Success In South
she first starred in another Tamil film Modhi Vilayadu, opposite Vinay Rai which garnered mixed reviews and was a financial failure, following which she appeared in the high-budget Telugu historical drama Magadheera, alongside Ram Charan Teja, which saw her essaying double roles for the first time. The film, directed by S. S. Rajamouli, received universal critical acclaim, while Kajal, particularly, was praised for her portrayal of a princess in the film. Kajal was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress in Telugu and was also nominated for the award for Best Telugu Actress in the South Scope Awards for her performance in the film. The film was also highly commercially successful and broke several records, emerging as the highest-grossing Telugu film of all time. Magadheera's enormous success turned Kajal into one of the most sought-after actresses in Telugu cinema and catapulted her into the main foray of leading Telugu actresses. The film was released again in Tamil as Maaveeran in 2011, which was also successful at the box office. Her subsequent releases Ganesh Just Ganesh, opposite Ram and Arya 2 opposite Allu Arjun received mixed reviews from critics, while her performance garnered positive feedback.
Kajal made a comeback in Kollywood later that year with two big releases; the first was the action thriller film Maattrraan opposite Surya and directed by K. V. Anand. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Her performance was well received; a review carried by The Indian Express summarised "Kajal does with utmost sincerity as the foreign language translator Anjali. It’s this trait and her graceful demeanour which makes Kajal a pleasant watch. The second was A. R. Murugadoss's Thuppakki, another action thriller film opposite Vijay, where she played the role of a boxer. The film was released on Deepavali and received mostly positive reviews from the critics. While Maattrraan was declared as an average success, Thuppaki was declared as a blockbuster and has become the second Tamil film ever to enter the 100 crore club. Her final release in 2012 was the Telugu romantic film Sarocharu, opposite Ravi Teja for the second time in her career. Although her performance in the film was praised by critics, the film received poor reviews and did below-average business at the box office.
In early 2013, she starred in V. V. Vinayak's action film Naayak opposite Ram Charan Teja and Amala Paul. Upon release, the film received positive reviews and was a major commercial success
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