Puan Seri Tiara Jaquelina
Founder & Chief Dream Maker, Enfiniti
Text by Ellfian Rahim
Truth be told, there are many out there who consider Puan Sri Tiara Jacquelina as Malaysia’s very own Dame Julie Andrews. And you know what? They could just be spot on about this, too…
After all, the celebrated actress and musical theatre genius has certainly raised the bar for made-in-Malaysia stage productions almost single-handedly with a slew entertaining, successful and memorable musicals all within the past couple of decades.
Propelled to stardom in the 2004 epic fantasy period film Puteri Gunug Ledang, Tiara starred as Gusti Putri, a Javanese princess who falls in love with the Malay warrior Hang Tuah, played by singer M. Nasir. This was the first Malaysian film to be shortlisted in the running for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, and later to premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Then, just two years later, she was instrumental in adapting the film into Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical, where she reprised her role as Javanese princess Gusti Putri, this time alongside Stephen Rahman-Hughes playing Hang Tuah. And she’s never looked back since!
In the end, Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical eventually became a much bigger hit than even the film, winning seven awards at the 5th Annual Boh Cameronian Arts Awards! And from 2006 to 2009, the musical was staged in Kuala Lumpur multiple times, and even opened to adoring crowds across the causeway in Singapore.
Since then, Tiara’s stage production company Enfiniti Sdn Bhd has gone on to produce other similarly successful musicals, namely P. Ramlee The Musical, The Secret Life Of Nora, MUD: The Story of Kuala Lumpur and most recently in 2018, with Ola Bola The Musical.
“You now, I’ve always been a patriot in my own way,” reveals Tiara proudly. And she’s quick to add substance to this claim by saying that her work always centered around the art of nation building. “I supremely interested in seeing what the arts can do about encouraging unity. And if you look at the past projects that I’ve done, you’ll notice there’s always elements that ask ‘how do we make Malaysians proud about ourselves, and what we have accomplished together…’
BrilliantC Hurricane multi stones dangling earrings & full diamond necklace. On her right hand: BrilliantC Hurricane three stones diamond ring. On her left hand: BrilliantC Hurricane solitaire ring; BrilliantC Love bracelet.
And perhaps one of her past projects that most keenly demonstrated this was MUD: Our Story of Kuala Lumpur. “I directed and produced this in 2015 and it’s basically the story of KL, and how back the everybody was a pendatang (migrant) who resettled in the booming new town to establish a home for themselves. And in the background of its main story, all the different races lived in harmony, and they went through thick and thin together.”
Then, Ola Bola The Musical came along three years later and this quickly became her most talked about muhibbah project thus far! “It was perhaps the first time ever that football was actually portrayed, and even played, in a stage musical,” she remembers. “We had full on football games with goals being scored on stage – so the actors had to sing, dance, act… and also kick a ball around convincingly with some purpose, too!”
For this project, Tiara took the pains to ensure everyone involved in this played some real football, and displayed believable ball control and passing skills too. “I mean, you’ll easily spot a kaki bangku (someone who doesn’t know how to play football) a mile away!”
But even with all this attention to detail, someone from the media actually asked me why I didn’t get a male, football fan-type director instead to helm the production… and I was pretty offended by that! But I politely responded that a man couldn’t possibly know what I had in my head!”
In the end, what she ended up doing for Ola Bola The Musical was to turn KL’s Istana Budaya into Stadium Negara of 1980, as the Malaysian national football team prepared to qualify for its first ever World Cup adventure.
Tiara had a big grin on as she remembers the stage performance’s premier night: “The moment you stepped into the venue, you would have witnessed projection maps all around you featuring a full-on match day stadium ambiance, complete with a 360-degree surround soundtrack of screaming fans and the like. It was so immersive that people even stood up to cheer when a goal was scored during the staging of the musical!”
“But more importantly, looking past all that, it was also about the personal stories of the multi-cultural ensemble of football greats like Soh Chin Ann, Santokh Singh, R. Arumugam, Mokhtar Dahari and Hassan Sani – they’re football icons from Malaysia’s colour blind era who were easily the most talented football ensemble this nation has ever seen.”
Tiara is also very keen to point out that she considers herself a storyteller who loves to bring out the back stories behind a multitude of Malaysian landmark events. “So, as you’ve probably noticed in my past projects, the focus isn’t just on the portrayal of the main historical figures. It’s mostly also about the family members they grew up with them and also the communities they lived in. Add in the magic of music and these wonderful people stories become even more engaging and unforgettable, I feel.”
“And I was also glad that when we took Ola Bola The Musical around the country on a Merdeka tour, I had schoolchildren coming up to me and asking about this magical time when the people of this country were so united in form and spirit – perhaps this was one of the key reasons why I started doing what I do now?”
Moving on to the present day, Tiara then says that she’s just finished working on the latest in-flight safety video for Malaysia Airlines. “And yes, you guessed it! It’s presented as a musical, with a dramatic (and still secret) cast dressed in the airline’s official finery vocalising what passengers need do in when an emergency happens on a fight,” reveals Tiara proudly.
For a very functional project like this, she believes that the content needs to entertain while serving a more positive focus. “And apart from it being a safety video, it’s actually also a celebration of Malaysia. I am a firm believer of the power of the classic music anthem. So, I wanted the song that went along with the video to be strong and memorable enough to be one of those tunes that would lift Malaysians up from the mess that we all went through these past couple of years on account of the pandemic.”
Tiara is also glad that of late, many corporate organisations are beginning to understand the need for the nation to build a credible support system for theatre. She’s now reaching out for the next generation of actors to keep the torch of performing arts burning bright. With her own Enfiniti Academy of Performing Arts and Musical Theatre, established in 2011 to provide theatre training, stage production and more for the next generation of stage professionals, the future looks bright indeed for performing arts in Malaysia!
“I suppose for me at least, the final quadrant of the stage acting development eco system is the availability of continuous training and development. This academy that I’ve set up is where we hope where the incubation of the next generation of the Malaysian performing arts will take place. Soon, it is over to the younger actors to carry the torch,” reveals Tiara with a ray of hope flashing in her eyes.
