Pooja's mother Sandhya is a Sri Lankan Sinhalese and her father H.R.Umashankar is an Indian Kannadiga Brahmin from sringeri in Chikmagalur district, Karnataka.
Uma Shankar was at Valparai working with Hindustan Unilever Limited as a manager. He was not at all interested in film industry but she was attached to it. Pooja can speak Kannada, Sinhala, Tamil and English.
After she did her pre-schooling in Sri Lanka, she came to India and went to Poornapragnya in Aldur, Chikmagalur and then to Nirmala Convent in Mysore.
Later she continued her education at Baldwin's Girls High school in Bangalore and did graduation (B.Com) and Post Graduation (MBA) at the prestigious Mount Carmel College, Bangalore.