Shriya Saran was born in Dehradun to Pushpendra Saran and Neeraja Saran.She was brought up in Haridwar. Her father Pushpendra Saran worked for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and her mother is a teacher in Delhi Public School.Saran completed her schooling from Delhi Public School, Haridwar and later studied at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi and received a B. A. degree in literature.Saran was trained as a Kathak dancer during her youth and later became a Kathakali dancer as well. She has an elder brother living in New Delhi.

Whilst studying her second year at the LSR College in Delhi, Saran got her first opportunity to appear in front of the camera. She eventually quit her studies to participate for the shoot. Following her dance teacher's recommendation, she was given the chance to appear in the music video of Reenu Nathan's Tirakthi Kyon Hawa. The video—shot at Banaras prompted Ramoji Films to offer her the lead role of Neha in their film Ishtam starring and directed by newcomers. Even before the release of Ishtam, Saran signed four high-budget films including Santosham, Chennakeshava Reddy, Nuvve Nuvve and Tagore with actors Nagarjuna, Balakrishna, Tarun and Chiranjeevi respectively.
Ishtam produced by Usha Kiran Movies and directed by Raj Kumar and Vikram Kumar,saw her receive positive reviews even though the film didn't fare well at the box office, and got her was noticed by many Telugu producers and directors.
Her next release was Santosham (2002), co-starring Nagarjuna, Prabhu Deva and Gracy Singh. Her portrayal of Bhanu won her more appreciation, and the film turned out to be high commercial success, celebrating a 100-day-run in theaters,it made Shriya one of the most sought-after actresses in Telugu cinema.[
In 2003, Saran made her debut Hindi film Tujhe Meri Kasam, starring debutants Ritesh Deshmukh and Genelia D'Souza in lead,[24] released first, a remake of the 2000 Telugu blockbuster Nuvve Kavali,which itself was a remake of a Malayalam film. The film garnered poor box office returns, and failed to propel her career in Bollywood.
After her failed Bollywood debut, she re-focused herself on South Indian films. She was cast to essay the lead role in the Telugu film Neeku Nenu Naaku Nuvvu opposite Uday Kiran. Collaborating with V. V. Vinayak again, she performed the lead role in his Tagore, a remake of the Tamil film Ramana, which released next. The film broke several box office records,[27] and became the highest-grossing Telugu film at that time.
Later that year, she made her Tamil film debut in Enakku 20 Unakku 18,again alongside Tarun and Trisha Krishnan.[30] The A. R. Rahman musical became a moderate success at the box-office, failing to gain her more projects in Tamil.