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 during 1980s Vishnuvardhan gave is voice By 1990 , his films lost box office value and he was out of work in Tamil and Telugu films for almost a year . He subsequently chose to direct his feature film '' Sevagan '' ( 1992 ) , a crime story which opened to mixed reviews , but became a box office success . Soon after , Shankar cast him in the lead role in his first film , '' Gentleman '' , after much persuasion . Arjun had initially rejected the film without listening to Shankar 's narration but the director 's persistence prompted him to feature in the film as a vigilante against corruption . The film opened to positive reviews and went on to become a trendsetter in the Tamil film industry , as well as achieving significant box office success , while Arjun went on to win the State Award for Best Actor . His change of fortune at the box office continued and Arjun began to gain ground as a bankable lead star in action films after his films including his patriotic directorial venture '' Jai Hind '' ( 1994 ) and '' Karnaa '' ( 1995 ) , where he played a dual role , went on to become blockbusters . Kamal Haasan approached Arjun to play a police officer in the drama film '' Kurudhipunal '' ( 1995 ) , and the actor jumped at the opportunity and agreed to do the film even without hearing the narration . Arjun won positive acclaim for his role , while the film became India 's official entry for the 68th Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film category
68th Academy Awards
68th Academy Awards
Arjun Sarja