Featuring alongside Vineeth and Tabu, Kadhal Desam became a critical and commercial success and Abbas was dubbed by the media as a "heart-throb" and garnered several more acting offers. His busy schedule meant that he missed out on various successful films including Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (1997) and Jeans (1998), and the Tamil films he appeared in such as Jolly (1998) Ini Ellam Sugame (1998), Aasai Thambi (1998) were predominantly box office failures.
Abbas's success with Kadhal Desam led to him being recognized as a "heart-throb" by the media, and he received numerous acting offers. However, his busy schedule prevented him from starring in several successful films, including Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (1997) and Jeans (1998). His Tamil films, such as Jolly (1998), Ini Ellam Sugame (1998), and Aasai Thambi (1998), were not commercially successful.