He debuted in 1989 through Ram Gopal Verma's debut Telugu film, Siva in a negative role as a student named J.D., and a supporting role in a Malayalam movie Ennodishtam Koodamo before devoting all his time to films under his mentor's Ram Gopal Verma's production.
It did fairly well at the box office and led to remake in telugu as Harischandraa starred by J.D. Chakravarthy and Rasi in lead roles.