SrinivasTamil Actor – Movies List & Song Lyrics

In 1993, he starred in S. Shankar's blockbuster Gentleman which opened to positive reviews, while Arjun went on to win the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor. During this time, he starred in hits such as Jai Hind (1994), Karnaa (1995), and the action thriller film Kurudhipunal (1995), for which Arjun won acclaim for his role while the film became India's official entry for the 68th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. In 1999, he starred in the political action-thriller, Mudhalvan, which earned him for his role as well as numerous other nominations. He was then featured in Vasanth's romantic drama film Rhythm, where he played a photographer, who eventually falls in love with a widow. Featuring a popular soundtrack and opening to positive reviews, Rhythm also became a commercial success.

His appearances in Kannada and Telugu films include Sri Manjunatha (2001) and Hanuman Junction (2001), respectively. He won the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor for his work in the film. The multilingual film Abhimanyu (2014) won the Karnataka State Film Award for Second Best Film.

Arjun was born as Srinivasa Sarja on 15 August 1962 to Kannada actor Shakti Prasad, and Lakshmi, an art teacher. Arjun had always thought and dreamt of becoming a police officer but his fate took him into an entirely different direction. Inspired by Bruce Lee's 1973 film Enter the Dragon, Arjun began training in karate at the age of 16 and holds a black belt in the martial art.

Arjun married Niveditha Arjun in 1988, a former actress who has appeared in the Kannada films Ratha Sapthami (1986) and Agni Parva (1987) under the stage name of Asha Rani. They co-starred in the 1988 Telugu film Doctor Gari Abbai. Kannada actor Rajesh is his father-in-law. He has two daughters, Aishwarya, who is also an actor, and Anjana.

Arjun had one elder brother Kishore Sarja, who directed Kannada films. His nephews Chiranjeevi Sarja and Dhruva Sarja are Kannada actors. Bharat Sarja, made his acting debut in 2014 with Veera Pulikeshi.

Arjun is an ardent devotee of Hanuman. He is building the Hanuman temple in the outskirts of Chennai. A 35-foot statue of the Lord Anjaneya was sculpted exclusively for the temple; the statue is in a seated posture and weighs around 140 tonnes. The single-stone statue is 35 feet high, 12 feet wide and 7 feet thick.

In October 2018, as part of the #MeToo movement, actress Shruthi Hariharan accused Arjun Sarja of misconduct, on the set of the 2016 film Vismaya (Nibunan in Tamil), where she portrayed Arjun Sarja's wife. In response, Arjun Sarja denied her allegations and filed a Rs 5 crore defamation suit against her. Sruthi then filed a sexual harassment case with the police, who concluded there was "no evidence" in favour of her. Crew members said no such incident happened on set. According to the director, Arjun Sarja had asked the filmmaker to reduce the romantic scenes in the movie. Sruthi alleged that the police did not seem to put much effort in investigating her claim. Her career took a nosedive, and she was unofficially blacklisted by the Kannada industry, as it supported Arjun.

Arjun was honoured with an honorary doctorate by Dr. M.G.R. Medical University in November 2024.

Arjun's father Shakti Prasad, a renowned actor of Kannada films, did not want his son to become an actor and turned down film offers that Arjun began to receive as a teenager. In a surprise move, film producer Rajendra Singh Babu managed to convince Arjun to begin shooting for a feature film for his production house without Shakti Prasad's express permission and consequently, his father agreed to Arjun's career choice. The film Simhada Mari Sainya (1981) featured him as a junior artiste and the director of the film gave him the stage name of Arjun, replacing his original name Ashok Babu. While he began to establish himself Kannada films, he received an offer from actor-producer A. V. M. Rajan and director Rama Narayanan to do a Tamil film Nandri (1984). Simultaneously he was offered a Telugu film, Kodi Ramakrishna's Maa Pallelo Gopaludu (1985) in Telugu too which went on to be a big success, running for 367 days.

His career as an actor began to take off in the mid-1980s and he sometimes worked for up to seven shifts in a day to keep up with the films he had committed to do. In Telugu, he established himself as a bankable actor with roles in films such as Naga Devatha (1986), Cowboy No. 1 (1986), Konaseema Kurradu (1986) and Manavadostunnadu (1987). In Tamil, his successful films during the period included Shankar Guru (1987), Thaimel Aanai (1988), Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (1989), Sonthakkaran (1989), Thangaikku Oru Thalattu (1990) and Thanga Thamaraigal (1991).