How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies Star’s Fans Cry & Hug Her When They See Her On Streets

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By now, you probably would have seen or at least heard of Thai film How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies.

The two-hour tearjerker, which follows the moving story of a university dropout, M, and his cancer-stricken Amah, has become the highest-grossing Thai movie of all time in Singapore, raking in more than $4.56 million since its release on May 30.

Early this week, 8days.sg met the film’s director, Pat Boonnitipat, 34, and the grandma of the moment, Usha Seamkhum, at The Ritz Carlton Hotel before their sold-out fan meet at Golden Village Suntec City.

Usha, 78, who lets us address her as Amah throughout the interview, is as sweet and gentle as you would imagine. We had to hold in an excited squeal as she gently reached out to hold our hand as she walked by.

Since the movie revolves around the relationships between the silver-haired matriarch and her family members, we were curious to find out more about Usha’s bond with her own grandkids.

Amah’s affection for her four grandchildren is evident.

Her eyes light up as she tells us about them in Thai through an interpreter: “My [eldest] grandkids are twins. They were my daughter’s first kids, so they stayed with me and I took care of the boys… until they started primary school at seven. They are now 28 years old. One is married and other is still single.”

“Whenever I meet them, I will kiss and hug them because they are my dears,” she adds.

When ask if the twins visit her often, Amah explains that they are busy with work, but her two younger grandkids, who have moved from Hat Yai to Bangkok, do.

“The boy is now studying architecture at Chulalongkorn University, and the girl is still finishing her school at Assumption Convent School,” Amah says proudly.

Director Pat also shared insights into his relationship with his 92-year-old grandmother.

“My grandmother is exactly like the Amah portrayed in the movie because I [wouldn’t be able to] direct any other kind of grandmother. My grandmother is very tough, she never says she loves anyone, never touches, and never hugs,” he says.

Interestingly, Usha is quite the opposite of her on-screen character, notes Pat.

“Usha is always touching [us], and she’s very sweet. She also dresses very fashionably,” he says with a grin.

That much is evident during our interview, where we see Usha occasionally reaching out for Pat and smiling at him like a doting grandma.

If you’ve watched the film, you’d notice, maybe belatedly, that Amah’s pomegranate plant is a telling symbol of how much she loves M. Only M can eat the pomegranate as it was planted when he was born.

As it turns out, this was inspired by Pat’s own grandmother, who has a cherished pomegranate tree.

“She always saves the pomegranate for… I don’t know who, but it’s for someone in the house. She took really good care of the pomegranate tree. We still have it now, it’s very small because it was grown in a pot, but it bears a lot of fruit,” he recalls.

He tells us the film’s ‘middle-generation characters’ — M’s mum and uncles — are also modelled after his cousins.

“It’s impossible for me to direct this movie without including the real characters of people in my life, ‘cos that’s the only way I can be precise about it,” he adds.

How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is so popular, it has sparked a TikTok trend — one which sees audiences filming their ‘before’ faces prior to watching the movie, and their tear-stained mugs after.

The trend didn’t go unnoticed by Pat and the one thing about the videos that stood out to him was how touched people were by the film.

He says: “The emotions are very similar, like how [the movie] hit them. They might cry… but I think that inside, they feel something they can’t put into words.”

He, however, did not direct the scenes with the intention of making the audience cry.

“When I work on a commercial film, I have to be certain about the [emotions] I want my audience to feel at [each specific point]. But with this movie, we tried to include many layers that people can connect with based on their personal experiences. So I wasn’t very precise in the sense like ‘oh you should cry here’, but you’re gonna feel something here, but that also depends on the individual,” he explains.

Despite being a tearjerker of a film, Amah feels How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is not a sad movie.

She says: “The movie instils feelings in people’s hearts. It’s not exactly sadness or joy, but it’s a mixture, a combination of all the emotions and that’s what made people cry,” she explains.

For those who don’t know, Amah was a model in television commercials before starring in How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, her first big-screen role.

Despite her newfound fame, she tells us there’s “nothing fancy” about her daily life, and she would still go about her day as usual.

She does get recognised on the streets these days, with fans running up to her to take a closer look and also selfies. “Some ask me for hugs, some cry. They cry, and then they hug me,” she says with a smile.