 He became acquainted with Ajith Kumar during their time as models, and often visited the actor during his film shoots.Ajith requested Manish to play a minor acting role in "Amarkalam" (1999) after the original actor did not turn up, and thus Manish made his first on-screen appearance.In the early 2000s, Manish continued to portray supporting roles in Tamil films, often as the lead actor's friends, and notably appeared in S. J. Surya's "Kushi" (2000), Saran's "Parthen Rasithen" (2000), Gautham Menon's "Minnale" (2001) and Jeeva's "12B" (2001).