Sara Arjun

Sara Arjun was one and a half years old when she shot for her first commercial after she was spotted at a mall with her parents and subsequently, Arjun appeared in a hundred ad films for brands including McDonald's. Arjun did a commercial for director Vijay when she was two but he then lost touch with Arjun's family, before he met them and cast Arjun in his drama film, Deiva Thirumagal, following a visit to Mumbai. Her parents helped Arjun learn the Tamil dialogues for the film by asking their Tamil friend, Maheswari, to assist them. The film's crew later remarked that Arjun had also learned Vikram's dialogues in the film and tried to help him during the shoot. Upon release, the film became a critical and commercial success with Arjun's performance of Nila becoming unanimously praised by film critics. The critic from Behindwoods claimed that it was Arjun "who steals the show next only to Vikram in her angelic looks and performance" and added that "there is a serene look about her which warrants accolades". Similarly another critic cites that "Sara as Nila almost steals the show as Vikram's daughter", whilst the reviewers from CNN-IBN mentioned that Arjun is "charm personified and she handles her role in an amazing manner". Her father claimed that Arjun was unfazed by the publicity and once in her hotel room, she returned to her daily routine of "asking for her eraser, sharpener and colour pencils". During the period, she also completed a part in Tomorrow directed by Amjad Khan, in which her father also starred, but the film did not get a theatrical release.

Arjun then worked on Kannan Iyer's supernatural Hindi film Ek Thi Daayan (2013) produced by Ekta Kapoor and portrayed the role of Misha, the little sister of the film's lead character. The film opened to positive reviews but did not perform well commercially, with Arjun's performance being described as "irresistibly cute" by the reviewer from Rediff. She then featured in a lead role in R. Sundarrajan's Chithirayil Nilachoru, though the film opened with little publicity. Arjun then worked on Vijay's Saivam, a family drama, in which she played a lead character of a young girl named Thamizhselvi. Featuring in an ensemble cast, she won rave reviews for her performance with a critic noting "the film wouldn't be half the film without the abundant charm and screen presence of Sara who plays Tamil".