Devgn made his debut in the action romance Phool Aur Kaante (1991), famous for its entry scene of him balancing on two moving motorcycles; the role won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. Action films such as Jigar (1992) and Vijaypath (1994) followed. His performance in Mahesh Bhatt's Zakhm (1998) won him his first National Film Award for Best Actor, and in 1999 he played Vanraj in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.
He played a gangster in Ram Gopal Varma's Company (2002) and the revolutionary Bhagat Singh in The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002), winning his second National Award for Best Actor and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Villain for Deewangee (2002). Other notable films of the decade include Gangaajal (2003), Yuva (2004), Raincoat (2004), Omkara (2006) and the comedy Golmaal: Fun Unlimited (2006). He made his directorial debut with U Me Aur Hum (2008).
In 2010 he had three hits: Golmaal 3, Raajneeti and Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai. He then played police officer Bajirao Singham in Rohit Shetty's Singham (2011), which launched a cop franchise. Further successes included Bol Bachchan (2012), Son of Sardaar (2012), Singham Returns (2014), Drishyam (2015), Golmaal Again (2017), Raid (2018), Total Dhamaal (2019) and De De Pyaar De (2019). He also directed Shivaay (2016).
His 100th film, Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior (2020), was a major box-office success and won him his third National Award for Best Actor, while also winning the National Award for Best Popular Film. He made his streaming debut with the series Rudra: The Edge of Darkness (2022), directed Runway 34 (2022) and Bholaa (2023), and had a hit with Drishyam 2 (2022). In 2024 he starred in Shaitaan, Maidaan and Singham Again, followed in 2025 by Raid 2, Son of Sardaar 2 and De De Pyaar De 2.
In 2026 he appeared in the comedy Dhamaal 4 and in Drishyam: The Conclusion, released on 2 October 2026. The thriller recorded the biggest opening of his career and, according to trade website Sacnilk, was nearing ₹550 crore worldwide within three weeks, becoming his highest-grossing film.
He founded the production company Ajay Devgn FFilms in 2000 and the visual-effects studio NY VFXWAALA in 2015, which has worked on several Hindi films.
In March 2025 a district consumer commission in Jaipur issued notices to Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan and Tiger Shroff on a complaint alleging that a Vimal pan masala advertisement made misleading claims about saffron. In 2026 the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration issued a show-cause notice over Vimal Elaichi advertisements it described as surrogate promotion; Devgn challenged the notice before the Bombay High Court in October 2026. As of November 2026 both matters were pending and no finding had been made against him.
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