Content creator Mayiduo’s directorial debut is a film with a cast of influencers

SINGAPORE – Local content creator Kelvin Tan, better known by his online moniker Mayiduo, is making his directorial debut with a cast of influencers.

The contemporary film – titled Aunty Like, Aunty Subscribe! – centres on Ah Hua, a down-to-earth fishball stallholder who loses everything important to her to a young and famous influencer. She decides to take revenge by becoming an influencer herself to win everything back.

The film, presented by media companies mm2 Entertainment and Double Up, will explore themes of self-identity, loyalty and personal improvement in Ah Hua’s journey to become a successful influencer.

It will star Tan and artistes such as Charlene Huang, Xixi Lim and Regina Lim, with comedians from Singapore and Malaysia making cameos and playing guest roles.

The lensing ceremony was held on Nov 4, with filming to begin later in the month. The movie is slated for release in 2025.

In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao, Tan, 32, said a big concern over casting non-A-listers was “whether people who usually watch our videos on social media for free will pay to go to the cinemas to watch our movie”.

With more than 88,700 followers on Instagram, he is convinced of the internet’s power. He believes that a cast of influencers is novel and is confident in their collective appeal.

Besides being a first-time director, Tan is also the movie’s co-screenwriter and supporting actor.

“I was originally just going to direct the film, but the sponsors’ condition was that I had to appear in it,” he said.

Tan, who is married with a four-year-old son, added that it was a dream come true to make the transition from influencer to director.

“I watched many movies by (Hong Kong actor-director) Stephen Chow when I was a kid. And when I grew up, I watched (local director) Jack Neo’s movies and dreamed of being a director,” he said.

Tan thought the dream was out of his reach until a friend who worked in mm2 introduced him to its chief executive Melvin Ang about two years ago.

Tan chatted with Mr Ang for about 30 minutes, telling the latter that he wanted to make a movie. Mr Ang replied that they should give it a try.

Tan said he had proposed big and small story ideas in the last two years, with Aunty Like, Aunty Subscribe! the third story he conceived. He worked with the co-screenwriter for more than 20 nights to complete the script after the story was confirmed.

He said earlier drafts of the script contained several parts that paid homage to Chow’s movies. But he realised that “overdoing it would turn it into plagiarism rather than homage”.

The script has since been modified. Tan said: “The feedback for this version was ‘there is a shadow of Stephen Chow’, which makes me very happy.”