Ramesh made his directorial debut with Thayagam (1996) featuring Vijayakanth, and the success of the film saw him sign on for three ventures in a short span of time.

He then made the romantic films, Dhinamum Ennai Gavani (1997) and Ini Ellam Sugame (1998), neither of which fared well at the box office.

[1] Ramesh also worked on the production of the multi-starrer Suyamvaram (1999) alongside nine other directors, and was given the responsibility of directing scenes involving Parthiban and Suvalakshmi.

[2] Ramesh also then worked on a bilingual action film titled Independence Day (2000), which was shot in Tamil and Kannada over a period of two years, with Arun Pandian and Saikumar in the lead roles.

In 2001, he began production on a film titled Daddy starring Raghuvaran which was never materialised.