The eldest son of Indian immigrants who settled in London, Andrews clashed with his father over the career choice of acting. At age 16, he moved out of his parents home and was taken in by a math teacher who became his guardian. In a more controversial move, he and the female teacher eventually became lovers and she bore him a son in 1992, two years after he graduated from London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. By that time, Andrews had made his stage debut in "My Beautiful Laundrette" (based on the well-received 1985 movie), directed by Hanif Kureishi. The director also gave the actor his first screen role in 1991's "London Kills Me". The teaming of Kureishi and Andrews reached its apotheosis with the 1993 BBC adaptation of the author's novel "The Buddha of Suburbia". Here Andrews was cast as the difficult lead role of a half-English, half-Indian suburban teenager in 1970s London and he delivered a strong and memorable performance.
A trained musician as well, Andrews got to display his vocal abilities as a Pakistani country-and-western singer in the British comedy "Wild West" (1992). Following his breakthrough role in "The English Patient", the actor was cast as a lusty monarch in Mira Nair's drama of sex and love "Kama Sutra" (also 1996), a somewhat controversial film. During the filming in India, the cast and crew had to dupe the local censors by pretending to be making a less explicit, more family-oriented piece. In the final effort, Andrews displayed a magnetic screen presence and a charming charisma. He was also well-cast as Dr Abraham Verghese in the Showtime adaptation of the physician's memoir "My Own Country" (1998), which detailed his efforts treating locals in rural Tennessee infected with HIV and suffering with AIDS. Later that year, Andrews was back on the big screen as the guide who helps an American zoologist (Bill Paxton) find the titular ape in the remake of "Mighty Joe Young".
Back on the small screen, Andrews essayed the role of Steve Banerjee, the founder of Chippendales, whose rise and fall was chronicled in the middling TV-movie "The Chippendales Murder" (USA Network, 2000). The actor then made his US TV debut as a regular portraying a news producer at a 24-hour cable channel in the ABC summer series "The Beast" (2001). He then segued back to the silver screen in the remake of "Rollerball" (2002).