In 1987, Barnali started her acting career as Sayani Mitra in a docu-feature Parichay produced by the Films Divison. She also performed many lead roles in Bengali and Hindi TV serials, directed by many prominent directors like Basu Chatterjee, Jochhan Dastidar, Raja Sen, Goutam Gupta, Sujit Gupta, Amitava Bhattacharya, Milan Roychowdhuri, Deepranjan Bose, Ranajit Roy, Anindya Dutta, Saibal Banerjee, Soumen Singha Roy and  others.

In 2007 she is working in some new mega serials and telefilms.

She joined commercial theatre in 90-s and performed the leading roles in Nilkantha (directed by Shri Soumitra Chatterjee), Devdasi (directed by Shri Gyanesh Mukherjee)., Teen nambar chokh (directed by Dulal Lahiri).