
In Kannapanunni, she plays the role of a powerful yet humane princess forced to marry a poor woodcutter. Her popular films are Chemmeen, Kallichellamma, Velutha KathreenaAkale, oru penninte kadha, sarsaiya, yakshaganam, kutti kuppayam, sthanarthy saramma, kadathunattu makkan, kannapan unni, jwala, Vazhve Mayam, etc. The next two decades saw her act in more than 475 films in various languages such as Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Urdu. The same year, she made her Malayalam debut through Bhagyajathakam. Later, she reverted her name to Sheela, her original name. She would continue to act in Tamil films with that name. Ramachandran, the hero of the film, added the suffix "Devi" to her name, thus he renamed her "Sheela Devi". She was introduced into the film industry at the age of 13 by MGR in the Tamil film Paasam (1963). Sheela was introduced to theatre at the age of 13 by Tamil actor S. In addition, she is also a painter and an interior designer. Sheela has authored a Malayalam novel named Pathamathe Cheque and has also written a book titled Kuilinte Koodu, apart from many short stories. He is currently working as a reputed builder.

She has a son George, who has worked in a few Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films, apart from television.
