Producer Vanridee Pongsittisak on Driving Thai Film & TV’s Global Breakthrough
The past few years have marked a period of remarkable momentum for Thai producer Vanridee Pongsittisak.
While the foundations of her career were built over more than a decade, supported by the Bangkok-based GTH and GDH 559 studios, Vanridee has recently led the charge as Thai filmmakers expand their international horizons.
Most visibly, this mission has played out in real time through the runaway success of the Pat Boonnitipat-directed comedy-drama How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies.
A surprise box-office hit in cinemas at home and across Asia on its 2024 release, this tale of a greedy grandson who comes to appreciate family bonds and love was picked up for international streaming by Netflix and quickly rose to the top of its charts. By the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed over US$73 million, and Netflix’s global reach meant the movie had found—and charmed—an audience of millions worldwide.
The film presents universal themes with distinctive Thai flavors and reflects Vanridee’s influences, which trace back to a childhood immersed in both local and global cinema.
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies also coincided with unprecedented investment in the Thai film industry. Fueled by government incentives and the country’s development as a global production hub, MPA member studios spent an estimated US$395 million in the country from 2022 to 2024, relying heavily on Thai crews and leveraging the country’s diverse and striking locations. Hit series like HBO’s The White Lotus, which filmed in Thailand, are prime examples.
Those topics – and more – were the focus of a joint MPA-Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) “Thailand’s Success Stories” seminar in Bangkok in October, where the spotlight fell on Vanridee and the story of her recent work, which has also included the multi-award-winning Netflix series Mad Unicorn, set in and around the frantic world of Thai start-ups.
The time ahead will see Vanridee continue to expand her international reach. While she won’t give much away about her next project, next year should see her reunited with director Baz Poonpiriya, with whom she produced the international box office hit Bad Genius (box office gross of $45 million).
Vanridee recently joined The Credits to share her career story and reflect on the state of Thai cinema.
Let’s start with How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies and its success. Did you feel you were onto something big with this film?
When we work, we are searching for magic, and while working on this project, we felt that magic happening. There is a universality of themes, but the actual global reach was something unexpected. When we screened it in-house, everyone loved it, and everyone cried, and a lot of people had to redo their makeup or whatever. But then, there were still doubts about whether it would have the same effect on real audiences in cinemas in Thailand.
Was that because of the genre?
The worry was whether a tear-jerker would be attractive to a wide audience. But it appeared at the right time. It turned out that tear-jerkers are in demand. It’s a new phenomenon for Thai audiences: coming together physically in cinemas to share this experience. It quickly became a kind of communal experience. Everyone went into the theater, started sharing tissues, and afterward shared their own experiences and personal memories, and how they relate to the movie.
Handing out tissues before screenings of How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies was among several promotional initiatives that went viral. How important have such campaigns become?
It’s actually a very interesting thing because, during our marketing and promotion meetings, we discussed whether we should shoot videos showing audiences going into the cinemas and coming out crying. But then that idea was never officially implemented as a strategy because Thai people are very skeptical when the media tries to tell them what to do. So, we wanted things to be more organic. We never told our international distributors, you know, you have to hand out tissues. It just happened. Also, you have to think of Thai audiences now as creators. They create their own content, and you hope that what they make will catch on, and it becomes an organic thing.
Okay, let’s track back a bit. Can we talk about what—or who—led you into film?
I have loved watching movies ever since I was a child, and then decided to study this path as a 13-year-old. I decided to study film, and the films that influenced my generation were those of the 90s. We would watch the classics, but the international films from the 90s were the influence. There were three kinds that screened here: Thai films, Hollywood, and Hong Kong. But the world map of movies is bigger than that. It’s filled with films from other nations, and when we started to watch them it felt like the world had opened up to us.
In Thai cinema, what did you find initially when you started, and how has it evolved in the years since?
When I first started working in the industry, Thai cinema was kind of at its low point. We were only getting about 10 per cent of the box office each year. So, at that time, it was less about going global but more about reclaiming or regaining trust from the audience. It became so bad that Thai movies were almost considered tasteless among Thai audiences. For me, it was about rebuilding the industry, rebuilding talent, and re-educating the audience. And then, a decade later, it became more about growth. It became more about preparing for international opportunities that might follow after all that hard work.
How have you gone about developing the work being done at GDH?
We developed a broader vision following our work in Thailand, and we know this market well. That doesn’t mean we will succeed in everything we do here, but we know it. We also wanted a new challenge – to go out and work in a more international way, meeting new people, working with new people. I have loved the international film realm since childhood, and this has probably driven my vision. We are now walking this path.
What do you think is unique in terms of Thai cinema – is it the style, the storytelling, or a combination?
We are a mixed culture, and that has an impact in terms of media consumption. Thai people themselves are diverse in their economic backgrounds; they are not characterized by a single trait of “being Thai.” Their preference is for a mix of things, and I think that shows in our filmmaking. We combine a lot of influences, a lot of ideas.
How much of a threat is piracy to your business, and what more can be done to protect Thailand’s valuable film and television IP?
The most difficult thing about piracy in Thailand, I think, is that the general public doesn’t see it as a significant problem or as a crime. There has not been an awareness that has been encouraged so that people do something about it, or that they’ll be punished. There’s not yet a general awareness that this should be taken seriously. And piracy always changes its form. You used to have counterfeit CDs, illegal websites, and now you have illegal content on TikTok. It’s either that the law hasn’t kept up with the evolution of piracy, or there’s a lack of public awareness of piracy’s criminality. These are the two things we need to change.
What role are international streamers now playing in Thai cinema, with regard to both funding and broadcast opportunities?
It’s affecting the Thai film industry. It’s good that we have global platforms investing in the local industry, investing in local talent, and bringing revenue via OTT channels to the studios. But at the same time, these changes have disrupted the cinema-going culture. There are a lot of different debates going on—there are pros and cons —but we have to keep up with these changes. We can’t fight against them.
For more interviews with filmmakers and producers taking big swings in Asia, check out these interviews:
Busan 2025: How Locations Shape Asian Productions, From “The Dark Knight” to “K-Pop Demon Hunters”
Featured image: Mad Unicorn. เจนเย่ จีรนรภัทร (Janeyeh Jiranorraphat) as เสี่ยวหยู (Xiaoyu) and ธรรศภาคย์ ซี (Thassapak Hsu) as เลียม (Liam) in Mad Unicorn. Cr. Sasidis Sasisakulporn/NETFLIX © 2025
