Arjun Sarja

Arjun Sarja Biography

Arjun Sarja, popularly known as Arjun is a successful actor of South India, who worked most for Tamil movies. He is a popular actor in Telugu and Kannada also and has done Malayalam and Hindi movies, one each. He has worked as a director and producer of a few movies as well.  His hit list include Gentleman (1993), Jai hind (1994), Giri (2004), Muthalvan (1999), Rhythm (2000), Ezhumalai (2002) and Sengattoi (1996).

Born in Bangalore of Karnataka, he started working in film industry through Kannada movies. His debut was through Putani Agent 1-2-3. After a few hits in Kannada like Pooja Phala and Mari Sanya, he slowly moved to Tamil film industry and got settled there. Simultaneously he worked for Kannada and Telugu movies also. His debut in Tamil was through Nandri in 1984. Then he did a string of movies in middle 80’s. Yaar, Avan, Vesham, Sivappu kili and Kilir kaala megangal were born during middle 80’s. He gave equal preference to Kannada and Tamil movies, though he got appreciation from Tamil film world most.

During early 90’s he entered into production and direction fields also. Sevagan was his first movie and he casted Khushboo and Nassar in leading roles. He served double role as both producer and director of a few movies like Sevagan, Prathap and Vedham. He produced the movie Vayuputra for his nephew in 2009; he played a cameo as well. His major hits as a director include Jai Hind, Vedam and Ezhumalai.

He is remembered most for his powerful role in Shankar’s Muthalvan, where he played the role of Pughazendi – Chief Minister of one day. Manisha Koirala played the role of his heroine. This movie was remade to Hindi next year with Anil Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee.  Another noted movie during this period was Rhythm in 2000 opposite Jyothika and Meena. Tunes of both these movies were composed by A.R.Rehman and were later used for Bollywood movies. The most popular songs are ‘Kuruth Chirithavale’, ‘Shakkalakka’, and ‘Uppukarivadu’ of Muthalvan and ‘Thaniye’, ‘Katre’ and ‘Nadiye’ of Rhythm. Most recently, he worked for another A.R.Rehman project – Kadal.

He has won Karnataka state awards for the best performance in 2012, for the movie Prasad.  He has won best actor award Tamil Nadu for his performance in ‘Gentleman’ in 1993.  A few more films that can be included in Arjun’s recent acting career are Parasuram, Ezhimalai, Chinna, Marudamalai, Vande Matharam and Mankatha.

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Updated: July 06, 2018