From Telugu film debut to Globe list

What did the 67th Annual Golden Globes,held in California on Sunday,and the Telugu film industry have in common? The answer is Thomas Jane,a nominee for the Best Performance by an Actor in a television series Comedy for Hung ,a HBO series,who made his debut in 1987 not in a Hollywood film but a Telugu film the romantic-comedy Padamati Sandhya Ragam. The actor has also been a part of films like the Boogie Nights 1997,The Thin Red Line  1998,Thursday  1998,Magnolia  1999,Deep Blue Sea 1999,The Mist 2007,among others.

I did an Indian film when I was 17 years old,and thats how I got into acting. I was living in Maryland,and some Indians came to Washington DC looking for a blonde kid to appear in an Indian film. It was like a Romeo and Juliet love story between a white American and an Indian girl. They wanted me to stay in India and I did another film over there,they gave me an apartment,a car and I was an Indian movie star at 17. But then I decided to return to America,studied acting, says Thomas Jane on his IMDB page.

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The movie,Padamati Sandhya Ragam,is about a Telugu family that moves to the US. The daughter Vijayashanti falls in love with a white American Jane and eventually marries him. It was written and directed by the late Jandhyala V Subramanya Sastry one of Telugu film industrys well known names.

We were searching for a new face. We went though several talent agents. And then we finalised on 3-4 actors to play the role. The person we finally chose disappeared for some reason,maybe he got cold feet. And then it was Thomas who was selected at the last minute. We shot with him for three months, says Meer Abdulla,the producer.  

Drummer Sivamani,who played the role of an African-American in the film,said,Tom and I used to drive around in his car. We did spend a lot of time together during the shoot. I heard about his nomination. I missed watching the award ceremony,he added.