In the first three decades of his acting career, he appeared in close to seventy Telugu feature films, winning Filmfare Awards for his performances in Brahma Putrudu (1988); Bobbili Raja (1989); Dharma Chakram (1995); Ganesh (1998); and Masala (2013). He made his cinematic debut at the age of ten in the movie Prem Nagar. Before returning to the screen, he earned degrees from Loyola College, Chennai, and the Monterey Institute of International Studies.