He made his Bollywood debut in Prashanta Nanda's "Paheli" (1977). He shot to stardom after he was cast in Kanak Mishra's "Sawan Ko Aane Do" (1979) and Satyen Bose's "Saanch Ko Aanch Nahin" (1979). He made his small screen debut in Ramanand Sagar's "Vikram Aur Betaal" (1985). He was then cast as Lord Rama in Sagar's TV series "Ramayan" (1986), for which he won the Uptron Award in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category in 1988. He reprised his role as Rama in Sagar's "Luv Kush".