Before They Were Stars: 17-Year Old Thomas Jane in a Tollywood Film!

Contrary to what many people think, Bollywood does not make up the entire film industry in India as it only represents the Hindi-language film industry which is based in Mumbai. The Telugu-language film industry based in Andhra Pradesh is also pretty prominent in India, and is often referred to as Tollywood. All that being said, Thomas Jane may be the only major American actor who can lay claim to making his film debut in a Tollywood production! When he was 17 years old, he starred in a Tollywood film called Padamati Sandhya Ragam (translation: Westside Evening), which told a Romeo and Juliet-style love story about the cultural differences that occur when an Indian family moves to the United States and the daughter falls in love with Thomas Jane’s American character. Jane got the role by answering a casting call in Washington, D.C. for an Indian production that was looking for a young blonde man. He actually claims they brought him over to India to cast him in another film and that he could have potentially become an Indian movie star, but decided to return to America to continue his career. I guess the world will have to live without a musical version of The Punisher.