[14] His father, Kishan, is originally from Nepal and belong to the Gurkha clan whilst his mother, Sulochana, is from Karnataka.

Ganesh's first project was Guttu, a telefilm directed by India's youngest female film director, Priyabharati Joshi, which remains unreleased.

Joshi offered the project to Ganesh just as he was about to graduate from Adarsh Film Institute, against the advice of industry insiders who criticized her choice of a newcomer.

Guttu was eventually screened at film festivals and in a few theatres in the US, as the producers weren't able to find a suitable time slot to show it on TV.

[21] Ganesh's initial film appearances were largely as extra actor playing uncredited roles as the lead characters' friend.

He continued such roles in the years 2004 and 2005 starring in films such as Dayal Padmanabhan's Baa Baaro Rasika (2004) playing Sunil Raoh's friend, V. Ravichandran's Aham Premasmi (2005) and Nagathihalli Chandrashekar's Amrithadhare (2005) co-starring Dhyan, Ramya which also had a guest role played by Amitabh Bachchan.

[23] In 2006, director M. D. Sridhar approached Ganesh to play the lead role in his film Chellata and he signed the project.

Featuring alongside Rekha Vedavyas, Ganesh's performance was well received, and the film was a box office success despite getting mixed reviews.

Soon after, director Preetham Gubbi approached him and outlined the story of his next script titled Mungaru Male, which had rain as a backdrop and to be directed by Yogaraj Bhat.

Actress Pooja Gandhi was roped in to play the female lead and the film was mainly shot during the rainy season in places like Madikeri, Sakaleshpura, Jog Falls and Gadag.

[25] The film established the careers of Ganesh, Bhat, Gubbi, Gandhi, the cinematographer S. Krishna, the music composer Mano Murthy, the lyricist Jayanth Kaikini and the playback singer Sonu Nigam in Kannada cinema.

In 2007, Ganesh collaborated again with M. D. Sridhar and Pooja Gandhi in Krishna, which became sensational hit at the box office, completing 100-days in main centres of Karnataka.

[citation needed] He further starred in Hudugaata, the Indian adaptation of the American film It Happened One Night (1934) costarring Rekha Vedavyas.

The third project of the year, Cheluvina Chittara, a remake of Tamil film Kaadhal, marked the first association of Ganesh with director S. Narayan and costarred Amoolya.

In his first release of the year, Gaalipata, a triple hero coming-of-age comedy, Ganesh partnered once again with Yogaraj Bhat and shot for the film in and around Thirthahalli and Agumbe region alongside Diganth and Rajesh Krishnan.

This was followed by two unsuccessful projects, Bombaat directed by D. Rajendra Babu pairing opposite Ramya and Sangama with Vedhicka.

The film featured him as a carefree urban youth who along with his friends help in foiling the plans of a terrorist gang.

The film was produced under his home banner "Golden Movies" by his wife Shilpa and directed by Preetham Gubbi.

A critic from Bangalore Mirror wrote "Ganesh attempts too many things in this film, making it a mess of everything.He sings, co-writes dialogues, gets his wife to produce the movie.

Ganesh's first among four releases in 2016 featured him in dual roles performing both comedy and action for the film Style King.

[citation needed] He reprised his role as Preetham in his next release Mungaru Male 2, a sequel to the 2007 film, this time directed by Shashank and featuring Neha Shetty as Nandini.

His films Pataki, Mugulu Nage and Chamak all released in 2017 and met with critical reviews and found moderate to weak response from the audience.