in 2009 During his college days, Murugadoss was active in cultural events, particularly in mimicry and drawing.
S. J. Suryah recommended Murugadoss to
Ajith Kumar for directing his debut film,
Dheena. His next films were
Ramana,
Ghajini, and
Stalin. In 2003, he contemplated making a film titled
Varathan with
Vikram in the lead role for producer
Oscar Ravichandran, but later moved on to other projects. His fifth film was
Ghajini, which was a Hindi remake of his same-titled 2005 film and marked his Bollywood debut. It released in 2008 and became the first Bollywood film to gross over 100 crore domestically. His next Tamil film
7 Aum Arivu, was released in 2011. Murugadoss signed a deal with
Fox Star Studios to produce two Tamil films. In 2012, he directed the action thriller
Thuppakki, starring
Vijay and produced by
S. Dhanu released in 2012 to mostly positive reviews and became the second Tamil film to enter the 100 crore club domestically alone after
Enthiran. Thuppakki collected over 180 crores end of its run as reported by the producer. He also directed the Hindi remake of the film,
Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. In 2014, he was the writer and producer for the fantasy film
Maan Karate starring
Sivakarthikeyan which was directed by his former assistant Thirukumaran. In 2014, he directed the action drama
Kaththi starring Vijay and produced by
Lyca Productions released in 2014 and emerged as one of the top-grossing films in Kollywood for 2014, collecting an estimated 131 crores. In 2016, he directed
Akira starring
Sonakshi Sinha. It is a remake of the Tamil film
Mouna Guru. Then, he directed
Spyder starring
Mahesh Babu and
Rakul Preet Singh. He joined with Vijay once again for the movie
Sarkar which is produced by
Sun Pictures Kalanithi Maran which released in 2018 for the Diwali. It was released in over 3000 screens around the world. The next, his film
Darbar starring
Rajinikanth was released in 2020. After five years, Murugadoss made his directorial comeback in 2025 with two films
Sikandar with
Salman Khan, and
Madharaasi with
Sivakarthikeyan. On 1 February 2026, it was reported that filmmaker A. R. Murugadoss would direct a high-profile pan-Indian action thriller featuring Sunny Deol and Jyotika in the lead roles, marking the first collaboration between the two actors. == Filmography ==