Udhaya began his acting career in 1998 under his original name of Senthilkumar, by appearing in
Ini Ellam Sugame (1998) produced by his father. Udhaya then starred in
Bharathi Kannan's
Thirunelveli playing a lead role alongside
Prabhu and
Karan and being paired opposite
Vindhya. The film won poor reviews. He was next seen opposite
Vijayalakshmi in
Kalakalappu, which also featured
Napoleon and
Jaya Seal. He also thereafter appeared in
Shakalaka Baby, while another film titled
Poonguyile, featuring him alongside
Vindhya and
Livingston, was shelved after several schedules. In 2001, his father
A. L. Azhagappan attempted to launch Udhaya as the main lead in a film titled
Ennil Kalanthavalae, but the project did not develop. In 2004, the actor announced a project titled
Asamy, and held a grand launch event, but the film failed to progress. During this period, he was also working on two projects which remain unreleased - the
Prakash Raj-starrer
Kaadhal Jaathi and
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, with the latter being used as the title for an unrelated project in 2010 by
Gautham Vasudev Menon.
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa was later released as
Unnai Kann Theduthe in 2009, while in 2011, the actor hit out at
Kaadhal Jaathis director
Kasthuri Raja, claiming that the director himself was blocking the release of the film. Udhaya's 2011 venture
Raa Raa won positive reviews, but went unnoticed at the box office, while his other release
Poova Thalaiya, alongside
Sherin also met with an average response. He later played a supporting role in his brother's
Thalaivaa (2013), before working on the low-budget horror film
Aavi Kumar. ==Filmography==