 Karunakaran had featured in such short film ventures at school and Nalan had cast him in "Nenjuku Neethi", which went on to win the first place award that season.Sundar C gave him brief roles in two of his ventures, while he made his first breakthrough portraying Vijay Sethupathi's friend in Karthik Subbaraj's "Pizza" (2012), after which he left work and concentrated on a career in films.Nalan subsequently cast him in his feature film debut "Soodhu Kavvum" (2013), for which Karunakaran won rave reviews.