Once bitten, twice as generous Tan reopens wallet

Awash in controversy, the band returned home from a competition in the Netherlands – a Bt3.1-million trek that Tan financed only because they’d buttonholed him in public – and promised to repay him. But Tan tells Manager he’s sticking to his word – he gave them the money, not loaned it to them. “I understand, though, that they think keeping the money would be bad for the school’s reputation, so, if they insist on giving it back, I’ll take it and then decide what to do with it. I won’t put it back in my purse, for sure, but maybe give it to other needy schools.”

Lovely sentiment, but unfortunately that puts Tan right back in the limelight as a reliable patron of charitable needs, and he’d made it clear after the Max band “demonstrated” outside his office for the loan that he would tolerate no more such solicitations. So his seeming readiness to sponsor good causes (again) has people muttering (again) that he just does this for the publicity. 

Tan shrugs it off. “If anyone says that, I can accept it because I think building a good image is necessary in today’s society. I’m doing good deeds because I learned from others who’ve done this before.” Tan says “giving” isn’t limited to money, either – you can give someone a chance or give someone respect, for example. “It makes society a better place and gives people moral support,” he says. 

It helps that Tan’s family backs him all the way. “I’m so proud of my children, and every time I give money to charity, my kids always say they’re proud of me.” Well, they’re learning how to spend money wisely and responsibly too – Tan has set aside Bt20 million for his kids to disburse.

Musicians-in-need can form a queue on the left.

 

More peeks at “Diary”

Film studio GTH had set a box-office target of Bt80 million for “Khid Thueng Wittaya” (“The Teacher’s Diary”) and its latest romantic-comedy has achieved that, so now the figures have changed. Next stop: Bt100 million.

To goose its chances along, there’s a four-for-three ticket promotion through Tuesday and the movie’s stars are on the road whipping up interest. 

No one’s holding his breath that “Diary” will strike the mother lode of bankability like the GTH behemoth “Pee Mak Phra Khanong”, but it clearly has a lot of potential, given the universally good reviews both at home and abroad. 

Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, the studio’s head of international sales, just came back from showing “Diary” to potential distributors at the Hong Kong FilMart.

“Some of them said they just fell in love with the film, and some of them cried too!” Yongyoot says.

Distributors are now lined up in Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and China. “I think I have sold it to almost all the countries in the region except Myanmar.”

What Yongyoot didn’t say was that most of the buyers asked him, “This isn’t a horror film? GTH always makes horror films – are you sure this isn’t a horror film?”

Evidently the studio can make movies other than horrors that can sell overseas too.