Deol made his debut in the 1983 romantic film Betaab in which role he was praised and he was nominated for best actor at Filmfare Awards. Deol has appeared in Rahul Rawail's Arjun (1985), in which he played the titular role of an unemployed youngster. The film went on to become a major hit and established Sunny Deol's status as an action hero. In 1986 he appeared alongside his father in Sultanat. In the final years of the decade he appeared in several hits including Dacait (1987), Yateem (1988) and Paap Ki Duniya (1988). In 1989, he had back to back hits with Rajiv Rai's Tridev and Pankaj Parashar's ChaalBaaz. He even won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor in Rajkumar Santoshi's 1990 film Ghayal. He paired with Aditya Pancholi in Vishnu-Devaa (1991). From 1992–1997, he gave back to back hits with films like Lootere, Darr, Jeet, Ghatak, Border and Ziddi. In 1999 he made his directorial debut with Dillagi starring himself, his brother and Urmila Matondkar.