He acted in several Telugu action and romantic films including Tarangini (1982), Netty Bharatham (1983) and Sithara (1984). Suman played mythological characters like Venkateswara, Shiva and Ram in Telugu. In 1993 he won the Nandi Award for Best Actor for Bhava Bhavamarithi.

He returned to acting by playing the villain in the Tamil films Sivaji (2007) and Kuruvi (2008). He played the main antagonist in the Malayalam film Sagar named Jackie (2009). He also won the Asianet Film Honor Special Jury Award in 2009.