Film score Arjun's first release as a music director was
Autograph Please (2006) starring
Sanjjanaa and Dilip Raj. Since then, he composed for various films but with little success until he scored the music for the film
Birugaali in 2009. All the songs of this film were noticed and appreciated. Following this, he tasted success by scoring for the film
Sanchari in 2010. His mainstream breakthrough came with
Kempe Gowda (2011), a remake of the Tamil blockbuster
Singam, which was a star-led commercial success. Around this time, he adopted the professional name Arjun Janya, reportedly on an astrologer's suggestion and with actor
Sudeepa’s encouragement. Some articles report that a meeting between Arjun and Oscar-winning composer
A. R. Rahman changed his fortunes in the music industry. In 2012, Janya's work on
Romeo won
SIIMA Best Music Director, while his score for
Alemaari received the
Karnataka State Film Award for Best Music Director. The period also saw
Victory (2013) yield the widely circulated song “Khaali Quarter”. The song became popular and was on top of the charts for many weeks. Janya remained active across genres with albums for
Dil Rangeela,
Super Ranga, and
Vajrakaya (2015), the latter marking his 50th film composition and winning SIIMA Best Music Director in 2016. Between 2017 and 2019 he scored for
Hebbuli,
Chakravarthy,
The Villain, and
99 (his 100th film as music director). During promotions for
99, he emphasized “nostalgia with freshness” in the album's approach. In the early 2020s, Janya released albums including
Love 360 (2022),
Gaalipata 2 (2022),
Baanadariyalli (2023), and
Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi (2024), while expanding multilingual releases across streaming platforms.
Film direction Janya's directorial debut,
45, features
Shivarajkumar,
Upendra, and
Raj B. Shetty in lead roles. Pre-release coverage highlighted its extensive use of visual effects (with Canadian studio MARZ's involvement) and an unusual production workflow in which a complete animated previsualization of the film was created prior to principal photography. Janya has described
45 as a commercial film with motifs drawn from Sanatana Dharma and stated that the full-animation previsualization took around 18 months, with the live-action shoot completed in 106 days.
Television shows Arjun is currently judging the Kannada version of the reality singing show,
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa in
Zee Kannada channel along with singer
Vijay Prakash and music composer
Hamsalekha. == Personal life ==