How did this project start?
I’ve been thinking about making my own movie for a while. I’m a film lover and have been working as a film dubber for 20 years but haven’t had a chance to get a real start. Then one day I met my boss (Somsak Techaratana-Prasert, founder of Sahamongkol Film International) and he told me that he thought I could produce a film. That was a kind of my first inspiration; it took me two more years to come up with the first draft.

You’re the head of the Panthamitr dubbing team; did that help with making the movie?
I’d say making the movie helped me with dubbing because when I started writing this story, I found out that dubbing scripts and screenplays are totally different, the latter being more difficult and detailed. In dubbing scripts, you just have the dialogue; all we need to do is play a character with the script in hand. But to write a screenplay entails adding so much more detail for each scene.

Panthamitr is funny, are you worried people will assume it’s a shallow film made by comedian?
I am afraid, but not in that way. People know that Panthamitr is fun and have a high expectation for that. People might come to see this movie and expect that, but what if we fail because it’s just not that fun. That would scare me more.

What was the hardest part when making this movie?
Of course, it was how to make it fun and meet audience expectations. The first time I wrote the script, the balance between romance and comedy was around 50/50, but after several revisions, we reprioritized it, but tried not to let that ruin the story. Good thing is that I had a very professional cast: Mario, Judd and Pla-Kung worked well together. It’s like they don’t just follow my script, but also have fully-adapted to the characters to bring them to life. They were so creative, coming up with fun ideas to add into scenes.

Speaking of the cast, why them? Did you choose them by yourself?
Well, I had Mario, Judd and Pla-Kung in mind since I started writing the script. Mario’s character is a playboy that loves extreme and crazy behavior, so I wanted someone that is good looking but never aware of it. For Judd, I had seen him in Lud 4 Lud, and I needed a character like that: a handsome guy always surrounded by girls. Pla-Kung is a character that we normally see in a group of friends; not that good looking or funny, though he could be silly sometimes, but very sweet and loyal.