He has largely appeared in romantic drama in Kannada films such as Anuraga Sangama (1995), Karpoorada Gombe (1996), Nammoora Mandara Hoove (1996), Amruthavarshini (1997), America!

[11][12][13] While studying at engineering college, Ramesh Aravind worked as an emcee at award functions, including an event celebrating the success of the film Sagara Sangamam (1983), where he met his long-term collaborator Kamal Haasan.

[16] After a brief audition, Balachander selected Aravind after being "impressed with his eyes" and cast him as the playboy character in Sundara Swapnagalu (1986), which released shortly before Mouna Geethe.

[17][18] Balachander then gave Aravind a small role in Punnagai Mannan (1986) as Revathi's ex-lover but his scenes were edited out of the final version.

[18] Ramesh made his breakthrough portraying a student union leader in Vasanth's romantic drama film Keladi Kanmani (1990), whose commercial success.

[19] He earned critical acclaim in Tamil cinema for his portrayal of a love-ridden musician in Balachander's Duet (1994) and for his performance alongside Kamal Haasan in Balu Mahendra's comedy film Sathi Leelavathi (1995).

[18] In his return to Tamil films since the mid-1990s, Ramesh frequently collaborated with Kamal Haasan on projects including the unreleased Kanden Seethaiyai (1996), Panchathantiram (2002) and Mumbai Xpress (2005).

He appeared in several consecutive commercially successful Kannada films including Anuraga Sangama (1995), Karpoorada Gombe (1996), Nammoora Mandara Hoove (1996), Amruthavarshini (1997), America!

(1997), O Mallige (1997), Ulta Palta (1997), Mungarina Minchu (1997), Thutta Mutta (1998), Hoomale (1998), Sambhrama (1999) and Chandramukhi Pranasakhi (1999), becoming one of the industry's highest-paid actors.

[35] A message in his voice was used as ringtone urging voters to vote in 2023 Assembly elections over Jio, Airtel platforms because of his noncontroversial and neutral image[36] He was chosen as Brand Ambassador for Bengaluru Gold Shopping Festival - Edition 2 in 2023.

[40][41] Dr. Ramesh Aravind turns as "Master-Mind" or Maha Guru for the show Mahanati (2024) telecasting every weekend in Zee Kannada channel.