A review from Indiaglitz stated that she "has chiseled features and a figure to die-for." Devadasu became the year's first commercially successful Telugu film, eventually grossing around 140 million, whilst earning D'Cruz the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debutant. She next appeared in the gangster film Pokiri in which she portrayed an aerobics teacher, who is harassed by a corrupt police officer. The film was a high financial success, emerging as the highest-grossing Telugu film at the time. She made her Tamil-language film debut in Kedi (2006). Although the film did not do so well at the box-office, D'Cruz remained too busy to accept all the film roles offered to her. Her Telugu film Khatarnak (2006) in which she acted opposite Ravi Teja did not do as well as expected, which has been attributed to her glamorous appearance not going down well with the audience. She subsequently experienced a breakthrough in her career as her following releases Rakhi (2006) and Munna (2007) proved critically and financially successful. Breakthrough and establishment in Telugu cinema (2007–2011) D'Cruz appeared in the 2007 film Aata. She received favourable reviews for her performance as Satya, a college student who is on the run from the home minister's crooked son by whom she is targeted, when leading a protest and demanding punishment for his crimes. In 2008, she performed the female lead role in the action film Jalsa, directed by Trivikram Srinivas. D'Cruz received largely positive remarks, with critics citing that she looked "pretty", "damn cool", and "every bit chic and stunning throughout the film", while being later awarded the Santosham Award, one of five awards for Jalsa, and the South Scope Style Award, besides garnering a nomination for the Best Actress prize at the 56th Filmfare Awards South. Her first 2009 release, titled Kick, was likewise declared a box office success, becoming one of the highest-grossing films that year. Later that year she starred in the films Rechipo and Y. V. S. Choudary's Saleem both of which performed poorly at the box office. D'Cruz had 2 releases in 2011. Her first film that year was Shakthi, where she essayed the lead female role. She gave a stage performance for this movie's audio release function along with Jr. NTR, as part as promotion of the film. The socio-fantasy film, the costliest Telugu film ever made at . Her next release was Nenu Naa Rakshasi, which marked