To call Hantu Kak Limah a box office success, would be putting it lightly. Directed by Mamat Khalid This Malay-language horror comedy has grossed more than RM 35 million at the Malaysian box office. It is the second highest grossing movie at the Malaysian box office, only behind the horror not-comedy, Munafik 2. The film is produced by Infinitus Entertainment (Malaysia), a company co-founded by Dato Robin Tan and Andy Lau (that’s right, the Hong Kong superstar who acted in films like Internal Affairs and A Moment of Romance).
Recently, I got the chance to have a chat with Infinitus Entertainment (Malaysia) executive producer Gayatri Su-Lin Pillai and managing director T.P. Lim.
Did you expect Hantu Kak Limah to make the amount of money that it did?
Gayatri: Honestly, no. The previous Hantu Kak Limah grossed over RM 8 million (it had 40 prints). But now, many years later we have more than 100 prints. In the beginning, we thought RM 10 million would be an ideal goal. However, after we watched the first cut of the movie, we thought “well, actually this is quite funny and endearing, so perhaps RM 15 million?” But in terms of hitting RM 30-35 million, we definitely did not expect it.
So, what do you think is the magic element that propelled the movie to attain this level of financial success?
Gayatri: Multiple factors. For one, Astro Shaw’s marketing has been fantastic. But it’s always a combination of factors. You need really good marketing, but more importantly, you need content that people want to see. If you have content and no marketing, it wouldn’t have the reach. If you have excellent marketing but no content, people won’t buy into it. Hantu Kak Limah has relevant content and good marketing.
Our release date was good too. Only a couple of major Hollywood films was out in cinemas at the time — The Meg (same time) and the Mission: Impossible – Fallout had just concluded its second week. Hantu Kak Limah is communal experience type of movie. People dragged their friends and family of all ages and viewed it many times.
TP: And now even the English speaking audience have started to go watch it because it has peaked their curiosity. The film is not as farcical and nonsensical as it seems. There’s a lot of layers to the humour. It’s just whether you’re familiar with the culture or not. There is, of course, the on-the-surface layer, which kids will find amusing. But underneath it, there are political references, etc.
Infinitus Entertainment’s filmmaking process?
Gayatri: Most of our films so far have been developed in-house. But moving forward, while we will still continue to develop internally, we’re also trying to get people to send in scripts that are ready. We have a lot of talent internally. We have a lot of ideas, but we’re also working with writers who may be very good or who are coming up. We want to create younger, finger on the pulse sort of content, but still commercially viable. As far as directors are concerned, we pick people whom we feel we can depend on and that’s why we work with people like Mamat and Kabir — they’re very good directors.
Does Infinitus Entertainment (Malaysia) have a particular style (i.e Blumhouse with the horror genre)?
Gayatri: No, we don’t. We didn’t want to pigeonhole ourselves. Blumhouse is niche and they opted to be niche. We want to explore various genres. One thing we always keep in mind, though, is that our films need to be of substance and have commercial value. We also want to make films with strong opinions. Our next film is an action-drama. You see, a lot of people tend to ask us, “what kinda message have you infused in the film?” But here’s the thing. We’re not educators, we’re filmmakers. And filmmakers have opinions. It’s up to each individual to interpret and then accept or reject our opinion. Which is the same for our upcoming film. At its core, the story is about two men and through their journey, we see all of us. Regardless of the general mass audience or the urbanite, we all share universal values. In the film, these two guys are headbutting each other, but they all also find themselves through their journey that isn’t always the most comfortable.
TP: We’ve packaged this story in a way to make it commercial. Here, they’re MMA fighters. The film’s name is Sangkar (cage).
What do you think about censorship in Malaysia?
Gayatri: Everyone has always berated censorship in Malaysia. But what people need to understand is that censorship belongs under KDN and KDN has a very huge mission and vision and that’s to ensure the security for the country.
When we talk about censorship, we’re talking about censorship for the mass and not about the urban, educated minority. What we were hoping for in Malaysia was that we move from a pure censorship, which gives you the rating based on a committee to the new style (old style of Hollywood), which is you let a group of parents and different individuals of different backgrounds and status to view the film and provide an honest rating.
But frankly speaking, our censorship board is quite open, not when it comes to the religious side, but when it comes to aspects like the community or social ills, they’re quite open.
Seeing as how one of your founders is an internationally renowned celebrity from Hong Kong, do you guys plan to do big Malaysia-Hong Kong collaborations?
TP: Yeah! We’re very open to that and we actually have a lot of discussions about that regularly. But, it has to happen naturally. The story has to come first. Only if the story requires a Hong Kong actor, for example, only then will we bring them in.
Before we wrap up, can you tell us a little bit about your upcoming projects?
TP: We’ve already completed shooting our third film, Sangkar directed by Khabir Bhatia (Pulang), the one we talked about earlier. We’re hoping to release the film sometime next March. The film stars Zu Arrifin and Remy Ishak. Besides that, we also have the sequel to J Revolusi coming up, titled J Retribusi and another film in the Kampung Pisang franchise.
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