A household name in the Thai entertainment industry, Kantana Group was established by Pradit and Somsook Kaljaruek in 1951. What began with niche homemade radio dramas has become the country’s leading integrated entertainment conglomerate producing films, TV dramas, variety programmes and much more besides. Every clan member has a role to play in sustaining the family empire. Among them is Chitralada Disayanon Kaljaruek, the youngest of Pradit’s five children and vice chairman of Kantana Group’s executive committee.
Groomed from a young age to join the family business, Chitralada recalls hiding under a table at home while above her radio dramas were being recorded. “Whenever they needed a kid’s voice, they would make me do it,” she laughs. “They always took me on location. I have pretty much been surrounded by the entertainment business all along,” the experienced 55-year-old executive laughs. A career in anything else was never in question and after earning a law degree from Thammasat University, followed swiftly by a master’s degree in communication arts at Chulalongkorn, she immediately returned to the family fold. “Of course there was pressure to do well,” she says. “But when I was younger I was driven to make my parents proud. In fact, I had no time to be nervous because I was thrown in at the deep-end and given responsibility for the production of a TV soap opera.”
Today Chitralada helps to oversee pretty much every aspect of Kantana Group but a current focus is the management of Kantana Movie Town. Spanning approximately 800 rai and including the Kantana Academy, which trains TV production staff, it is an ambitious outdoor studio located in Phutthamonthon. “From castings and film equipment logistics to securing broadcast channels and maintaining production schedules—believe me, I’m kept busy,” she laughs. “But then I’m very fortunate to love what I do.”
One of the biggest challenges for the business going forward, Chitralada explains, is keeping pace with ever-changing trends in the way entertainment is consumed. “There is no doubt that digital TV, for example, has influenced viewer behaviour and demand. And look at how in recent times people have turned even more to social media channels to stay connected, to maintain lifestyle mores and, importantly, to share forms of entertainment. We know we have to tap into that zeitgeist.”
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