In 1998, he made his debut with
Dasari Narayana Rao's
Greeku Veerudu co-starring
Pooja Batra and further made a special appearance in
Anthahpuram that same year. In 2000, Arun Kumar worked on
Kondaveeti Simhasanam and
Orey Thammudu co-starring
Srihari but was later removed from the first film as it went through production delays. His next film
Chinna (2001) garnered notice for shooting its songs in New Zealand and for its attempt to dub the film in Sinhala and release it in Sri Lanka. His next film
Rifles (2002) was set in
Telangana and featured
Vijaya Shanthi. He co-starred
P. Sai Kumar,
Thriller Manju and
Vani Viswanath in the action film
Janam later that same year. He played
Nandamuri Harikrishna's brother in
Tiger Harischandra Prasad (2003) and a critic called his performance "adequate". He returned to playing the lead role with
Adivishnu co-starring
Sneha. ==Personal life==