Arjun Sarja – Action King of South Indian cinema best known for playing police officer on screen

Srinivasa Arjun Sarja, professionally known as Arjun is a very popular and successful film star of south Indian cinema. Best known for his action roles, he is also called ‘Action King’ and he owns an immense fan base. He predominantly works in Tamil cinema, where he is a huge star. He has also done movies in Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and Malayalam languages, and has fans from other regional languages too, especially for his action roles. Arjun has acted in more than 150 movies and has directed 10+ movies. Gentleman was his first blockbuster, followed by Jai Hind, Karna, Muthalvan, Rhythm etc. Giri, Ezhumalai, Sengottai, Nibunan, Kolaigaran etc are a few more hits.

Arjun represents the second generation of Sarja filmy family of actors

Arjun Sarja hails from a filmy family, belonging to many successful actors, and he represents the second generation of Sarja family. He was born as the son Kannada villain of yesterdays, Shakti Prasad in 1964. Madhugiri in Tumkur of Karnataka is his hometown. His elder brother Kishore Sarja, who passed away in year 2009, had a brief career in Kannada film industry as a film director.

Arjun is married to Kannada film actress Niveditha Arjun of Ratha Sapthami fame. Daughter of popular Kannada hero of yesterdays – Rajesh, she is also a film producer, associated with home production, Sree Raam Films International. The couple has two daughters – Aishwarya Arjun, an actress and Anjana Arjun, a fashion designer based in New York.

Deceased actor Chiranjeevi Sarja and Dhruva Sarja are his nephews. Thus he is related to actress Meghana Raj, daughter of popular Kannada actors, Sundar Raj and Pramila Joshai.

The action king owns a black belt in Karate

Since young he is attracted to action and fights, and he was inspired by Bruce Lee’s 1973 film Enter the Dragon. Thus he began training in Karate at the age of 16, and got a black belt. Initially he dreamt to become a police officer. But his destination was something else, and he followed the footprints of his father and reached cine buzz. He was launched to films by his father in the 1980s and acted as his mentor during his early phase. But Shakti Prasad didn’t initially encourage him to pursue a career in acting. When his father left the world so expectedly in 1986 in his late 50s, Arjun later continued his journey alone and succeeded in this field.

When Arjun reached teens, he started receiving offers from films. However his father rejected all those offers initially. However film producer Rajendra Singh Babu convinced Arjun to appear in a movie without seeking permission from his father, and thus in 1981 he started his career as a junior artist through the movie, Simhada Mari Sainya. He also rechristened Ashok Babu as Arjun, the name through which he is familiar to outer world still now.

Initially he worked in Kannada movies

He started doing minor roles in Kannada movies, and slowly established as an actor. Many of his Kannada & Telugu movies of 1980s and 1990s have been dubbed and released in Tamil. He later received offers from Telugu and Tamil movies, and turned an immensely popular actor with the release of Tamil movie, Gentleman in 1993, directed by Shankar.

Male Bantu Male (1984) was his first movie in a lead role. Director Rama Narayanan casted him in many movies during his initially phase in cine world, and gave him the first break to Tamil films through Nandri in 1984. Kodi Ramakrishna’s Maa Pallelo Gopaludu (1985) – his debut Telugu movie was a huge commercial hit. Throughout 1980s he worked in three different languages, and after the huge success of Gentleman, he concentrated most on Tamil films. He also received Tamil Nadu state award for best actor for Gentleman.

His star value increased multiple times after Gentleman’s success. His role as one-day Chief Minister in Muthalvan is yet another powerful role he played on screen. As a cop, politician or common man, most of his roles portrayed the fight against justice and corruption done by upper section of the society. Now he has moved to character roles, and also did a few negative roles like Kadal, Irumbu Thirai etc in the recent times. Yet he still plays police officer roles on screen, even while exploring different shades of acting earning praises. He shared screen space with Dileep in Malayalam thriller, Jack & Daniel, in the role of an IPS officer.

He made his directorial debut with the film Sevagan in 1992

In the late 1980s and early 1990s his films start losing in box office, and he took the new role of a director. Although his directorial debut Sevagan, opened to mixed reviews, the movie was a box office hit. He also co-scripted the movie.

Till year 2020, he directed 11 films in total which include – Sevagan, Prathap, Jai Hind, Ezhumalai, Parasuram, Madrasi, Vedham, Jai Hind 2 etc. He played lead roles in all these films, and produced a few of them too. Most of these movies belong to action genre. He was one among the directors of Suyamvaram, the movie which holds the Guinness World Record for casting the most stars in a film, and also the movie which completed whole shooting within 24 hours.

His successful association with A. R. Rahman tunes

A.R. Rahman composed some of the finest tunes for Arjun’s movies. Gentleman was their first association together, which benefitted the careers of both. Rahman’s compositions for Rhythm and Muthalvan were huge chartbusters, and played a magnificent role in movies’ success. All these tunes were later reused in Bollywood later, though Arjun was not a part of them. While tunes of Gentleman and Muthalvan were reused for Hindi remakes of same movies, Rhythm is an exception. (Anu Malik copied some of the hit songs of Gentleman for its Hindi remake titled – The Gentleman.)

Some of the best songs of this combination are Katre Un Vaasal and Nadhiye Nadhiye of Rhythm, Uppu Karuvaru, Shakalaka Baby, Azhagana Ratchashiyae and Kurukku Chiruththavale of Muthalvan, Ottagathai Kattiko,  En Veetu Thotathil and Usalampatti Penkutti of Gentleman etc. Vidyasagar also composed some of the finest songs for Arjun. ‘Malare Mounama’ of Karnaa is one such finest song.

Arjun Sarja – 10+ Interesting and less-known facts

1. He is an ardent devotee of Hanuman. He builds a Hanuman temple in the outskirts of Chennai.

2. In his opinion he was not a born actor, though born as the son of an actor. He learnt observing others, and also learned acting by watching Sivaji Ganesan and Nagesh films.

3. He has rendered his voice as a playback singer for the movies – Jaisurya, Parasuram, Mudhal Udhayam and Karnaa.

4. When he turned a busy actor in the 1980s, he used to work up to seven shifts in a day.

5. Initially he was not at all interested in accepting the project, Gentleman. However the film’s huge success became a life changing moment of Arjun’s career.

6. Among all roles, his role as a police officer has been appreciated most. Jai Hind, Bommalattam, Mankatha and Kurudhipunal are among such memorable roles as a police officer. He frequently plays similar roles nowadays too, Nibunan, Kolaigaran, Jack & Daniel etc being the best instances.

7. For his 100^th film, Mannavaru Chinnavaru (1999), he shared screen space with Sivaji Ganesan.

8. Arjun received the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor for Muthalvan and Gentleman, both directed by Shankar. Both are landmark movies of actor’s career.

9. He received Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor for 2012 movie, Prasad.

10. Following the shocking allegations made by Vismaya actress Sruthi Hariharan on Arjun in 2018 as a part of #MeToo Movement, he filed rupees 5 crore defamation suit against the actress.