Mike Wiluan: The Possibilities are Infinite!

One of the headline events at last December’s Asia TV Forum and Market (ATF) was the joint venture by Singapore’s Infinite Studios and Indonesia’s Screenplay Productions to produce a series of movies for theatrical release. The other Indonesia connection of the project is Mike Wiluan, who is the Chief Executive of Infinite Studios which also has its production facility in Batam.

Infinite Studios has already made its mark in productions with HBO Asia’s first original series Serangoon Road (together with Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and HBO Asia’s first original movie, the horror film titled Dead Mine. The company is also a long-term collaborator with award winning Singapore direct Eric Khoo. The latest feather in the studio’s cap is providing production services for the Jakarta shoot of an upcoming thriller, to be directed by famous Hollywood director Michael Mann.

Mike Wiluan is very positive about the future of the Indonesian film industry. At the signing ceremony of the joint venture with Screenplay Productions in Singapore at last year’s ATF, he said, “There is a great potential for the Indonesian movie industry thanks to the deep talent pool and market demand which has not been fully tapped. We hope to produce movies with great production values that will fill this demand and have broad market appeal, not only in Indonesia but also to an international audience, but also international audience. Furthermore, after developing state of the art media infrastructure in both Singapore and Indonesia, we are now looking to get into content creation that will further benefit and sustain the movie industries in both countries.”

Thirty-nine year-old Mike Wiluan can be described as a citizen of the world and visionary for creating an integrated media, entertainment and creative services company with the objective of becoming one of Asia’s leading producers for a global audience. The son of Indonesian business tycoon, Kris Wiluan, he was born in Singapore and has carved himself a niche in the media industry by working closely with Singapore’s Media Development Authority to attract international projects into the island.

Mike had said that his father-who is involved in the oil and gas industry- had companies that also supplied entertainment programmes to offshore oil rigs. The senior Wiluan also loved movies and had a large collection at home. Almost every week Mike, his father and brother watched films together, and he says that this is probably where his love of movies had grown from.

After reading art and film studies at the University of Kent, England, he entered into the family business as an energy trader. But his first love and dream was still film and he went on to eventually establish Infinite Frameworks in 2004 in Singapore – the forerunner of Infinite Studios. He saw the opportunity to base the company in Singapore as well as a studio in Batam and produced world-class animated movies like Tatsumi and Sing to the Dawn.

Wherever he is though, Mike insists his heart belongs to Indonesia. In an interview with Dewi magazine last December, he was quoted as saying, “Saya cinta Indonesia. Apapun yang saya produksi untuk dan di Indonesia selalu membuat saya bersemangat, karena saya tahu saya ikut membangun Indonesia dan memberi kesempatan orang muda untuk berpartisipasi dalam sesuatu yang akan membentuk masa depan. Kalau saya hanya cari untung, saya nggak perlu capek-capek menggeluti perfilman dan bikin studio. Saya bisa mendapatkannya berkali-kali lipat dari bisnis energi, minyak, dan gas bumi.”