Dhurandhar turns the spotlight on Sara Arjun’s early years in advertising

New Delhi: Sara Arjun’s breakout as a leading face in Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar is drawing attention back to a body of work the advertising industry has long known her for: a career that began in TV commercials and ran through over 100 ad films.

Arjun, 20, has been widely discussed as a “former child ad star” who transitioned early into films, after years of being a familiar face in Indian living rooms through mass-category advertising.

Her advertising journey started when she was around one-and-a-half years old. She shot her first commercial after being spotted at a mall in Mumbai with her parents, and later appeared in “a hundred ad films”, including for McDonald’s, as per published profiles. 

That early on-camera work also opened the door to cinema. Arjun did a commercial for director A L Vijay when she was two. Vijay later cast her in his 2011 Tamil drama Deiva Thirumagal, which became a critical and commercial success and established her as a child actor. 

Over the years, her commercial portfolio expanded across categories. Reports have linked her to campaigns for brands such as Maggi and LIC, apart from her early visibility in family-focused television advertising.

In 2025, Arjun moved into a new phase of public visibility with Dhurandhar, which released theatrically on December 5, 2025, and has been tracked as a strong box office performer. 

A separate line of coverage has identified her character in the film as Yalina Jamali. 

For advertisers, the renewed attention around Arjun has also revived a familiar conversation. Her career has spanned baby-led commercials, child-centric storytelling, and now a mainstream Hindi film launch, offering brands a recognisable face that has grown with the audience.