Payal is an ardent devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba.She is a fitness freak and won numerous medals in the sports competition in her school & college.In 2000, she participated in the Femina Miss India beauty pageant with Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta, and Dia Mirza.She won the title of Supermodel Miss Tourism World 2001 and Miss India Tourism 2001.After that, she started modeling for popular brands like Amul, Nescafe, Nirma, Jaguar Bath Panel, Dabur Hair Oil, etc.She featured in some commercial advertisements like Cadburys Temptations Chocolates, Dabur Lal Dant Manjan with cricketer Virender Sehwag, Eveready battery with Amitabh Bachchan, etc.She also appeared in some music videos by Silk Route, Rock Band, and Indipop artist KK (Krishnakumar Kunnath).She got a breakthrough role in 2002 in the Bollywood film Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai? as Esha.She worked in different languages like Hindi, English, and Telugu.She participated in many reality shows like Bigg Boss Season 2 (2008), Raaz Pichhle Janam Ka (2009), Zor Ka Jhatka: Total Wipeout (2011), Survivor India (2012) and Nach Baliye Season 7 (2015) along with her fiance Sangram Singh.