'I love Singapore so much': Amah and director of How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies meet Singapore fans
The beloved 78-year-old actress Usha Seamkhum of the hit Thai film How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, along with director Pat Boonnitipat, were specially in Singapore on Monday (Jun 24) to thank fans for the overwhelming support.
Pat Boonnitipat and Usha Seamkhum meets fans at the special screening of How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies at Golden Village Suntec City on Jun 24, 2024. (Photo: CNA/Syamil Sapari)
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There were no tears, only cheers, in the cinema when around 400 fans greeted the titular character and the director of the hit Thai tearjerker How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies at a meet-and-greet on Monday (Jun 24) evening.
Usha Seamkhum, the 78-year-old actress who played the beloved Amah on screen, and 34-year-old director Pat Boonnitipat flew to Singapore to personally thank fans for their overwhelming support for the movie at the double sessions organised by Golden Village.
A second session, also held on Monday evening at Golden Village Suntec City, had been added last Thursday after tickets for the first session sold out.
How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies follows the relationship between cancer-stricken Amah and her grandson M (Billkin Putthipong Assaratanakul), who never cared for her. That is, until he devised a get-rich-quick scheme to be a devoted grandson to his dying grandmother, in hopes of getting a million-dollar inheritance.
Not in M's plan? The genuine love that he develops for Amah.
The emotional film broke box office records in Singapore within 11 days after its release on May 30. It earned S$1.77 million, making it Singapore's highest-grossing Thai film of all time. Out of this amount, S$1.16 million was made in ticket sales solely during the second weekend in cinemas, Golden Village had said on Jun 10.
As of Jun 23, the film has grossed S$4.56 million, and is one of the highest-grossing movies in 2024 thus far.
While the Thais are arguably known for dramatic and effective storytelling, the achievement is no mean feat for the Thai duo: How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is Boonnitipat's directorial feature debut and Seamkhum's film debut.
Speaking to fans on Monday, Boonnitipat pointed out that the film's success took him by surprise.
“People were telling me that the movie, which is about a traditional Chinese family, will naturally do well in a Mandarin-speaking country. But when it did well in Indonesia, I realised that the story is universal,” he said. “Everyone can relate to the bond between a grandmother and her grandson.”
Since its release, the movie has also gained a reputation for being a sobfest, spawning a TikTok trend where users film themselves before and after being utterly wrecked by the movie.
On Monday, however, the mood in the cinema halls was markedly different. Fans cheered and clapped for Seamkhum and Boonnitipat when they made their appearance after the screenings of their movie, showering them with gifts and questions.
Among the queries, Boonnitipat was asked what kind of grandchild he was. "I'm not good, not bad, just like M," he said.
Meanwhile, fans wanted to know whether Seamkhum was similar to her on-screen character - prickly on the outside, soft on the inside. Her IRL personality, she replied, is "almost the opposite".
And as for how the first-time movie actress feels about now being everyone's grandmother, she responded: "There are so many grandchildren to love. I love Singapore so much."
Alright fine, cue the waterworks.
