After 25 years in showbiz, Saharat "Kong" Sangkapricha can call 2012 his golden year. Hottest on his roster at the moment is his turn as a warm and caring coach in the singing contest The Voice, the Thai version of the global TV phenomenon that concludes this Saturday on Channel 3.
The leading guitarist/singer of the pop-rock sensation Nuvo also saw his band become active with a packed gig earlier this year. And on Dec 20, Saharat will appear in his latest starring role in the movie Wan Tee Rak (Together), a drama about love found and lost in which he co-stars with, among others, Princess Ubolratana. The film rounds off a fulfilling year for the 44-year-old heart-throb _ that description still works _ who keeps going strong and probably has outshone his peers in the entertainment industry over the past 12 months.
This week, Saharat's priority is coaching his protege in The Voice, a programme that has gone from strength to strength.
He's working and rooting for 16-year-old Tanont Chamroen, one of the four finalists who stands a good chance to become The Voice's first champion in Thailand, and if the boy wins, Saharat can claim top honours as a coach.
At first the modest singer-actor declined to join The Voice's quartet of coaches because he thought he couldn't do the job.
"Frankly, I refused to take the role, which was offered to me many times over the phone," he said. "All my life, I have been a musician, singer and actor, but I just couldn't see myself as a coach. After meeting up with the producer, I got a better picture of what the TV show is all about and agreed to try out teaching people."
But the job actually turned out to be easier than he had thought. Tanont, the luk thung prodigy, and the rest on Saharat's team found themselves in the hands of a well-rounded talent. Saharat, whose band Nuvo released their first album in 1988, saw the peak of his musical career in the early 1990s before the band fizzled out _ though the memory of their catchy tunes remains vivid among fans.
Looking back to his early days in the music industry, he is grateful to his coaches.
''[In the mid-1980s] we played at a pub in Sukhumvit 33 for two years before we signed a contract with Grammy, where I was fortunate to learn from music gurus such as Rewat Buddhinan, Krit Choktippattana, and Soros Poonkabutr,'' he recalled.
''I absorbed what they taught me about recording songs and performing concerts, and all of it has been embedded within me, waiting for the day when I would transfer it to others. That has happened in The Voice where I discovered that being a coach comes naturally to me.''
Setting a higher standard for singing contests, The Voice _ following the original Dutch TV format _ comes with the concept of voice quality over personal appearance. This is conveyed in the first round called the blind audition, when coaches cannot watch but only listen to the contestants' singing.
Liking what they hear, they can press a button to turn their chairs around and sell themselves to get that ''voice'' onto their team.
During the blind auditions, the contestants reinterpreted Lork Gun Len Rue Plao, Niyarm Rak and Luek Sud Jai in a way that had Saharat hitting his button.
''I wanted them on my team not because they were singing Nuvo's songs,'' he said. ''But to hear a younger generation rearranging these songs and turning them into their own versions impressed me. It also demonstrated how Nuvo songs are timeless and that is a reward for being a musician.''
Perhaps the best thing that happened to him and Nuvo this year was when the band performed at Zaap Music Party at Thammasat University's Rangsit campus on Nov 30.
''It was astounding to see young university students singing along to Pen Yarng Nee Tung Tae Kerd Loey [I Have Been Like This Since I Was born], which is a number from our first album, back in 1988, when most of them weren't even born yet,'' he said.
''As a matter of fact, they could sing half of the songlist in that concert and that really made our day.''
Music is his real love, emphasised Saharat, who with his appealing looks and charming demeanour became more engaged in acting after his debut in the television series Phrik Khee Noo Kub Moo Ham in 1995.
He's starred in almost 40 soap operas, and earlier this year he played in the romantic comedy, Mae Yay Tee Rak on Channel 3. The affable star reckons he has a good sense of humour which is perfect for performing in comedies.
Every Saturday afternoon, TV viewers can watch him cracking gags with the country's top comedians, Mum Jokmok and Tukky, in Wongkamlao The Series, a spoof of Thai soap and hi-so life which has been running for three years on Modernine TV.
''There's absolutely no stress at all in playing Chai Lek,'' he said of his role in the sitcom. ''There's not much memorising of the script, and Pi Mum can just think of fresh gags and we just play along with them. There's no dramatic scenes that require me to be in tears, and instead I get a lot of laughs when recording the sitcom at Workpoint Studio.''
His fans have seen less of him on the silver screen though, but his movies are likely to be blockbusters.
Long before Hollywood's Twilight, Khu Tae Song Lok (Time Bite Twilight, 1994) featured Saharat as a stuntman who falls in love with the last female vampire in Thailand.
Much later he did a real horror flick, portraying a salesman with a wife and two children living in a haunted housing estate in the acclaimed Laddaland (2011). Grossing around 115 million baht, the GTH film became one of last year's best performers while garnering much critical kudos for turning a standard ghost story into a study of middle-class malaise.
In the upcoming Together, he stars opposite Princess Ubolratana as a happy couple whose relationship is shaken by conflicts and memories of the past when the estranged father of the wife turns up at their house.
All in all, it has been a notable Year of the Dragon for him but The Voice coach is not elated by fame or fortune.
''During the last 25 years, I have seen my ups and downs in showbiz. Everything has a beginning and an end, this is the sajja dhamma [truth of life],'' said Saharat, who says that his favourite reading material are religious books by Buddhist monks.
In a shrewd spiritual strategy, he puts these sin-extinguishing books next to auto magazines in order to remind himself to only look at the pictures of a Porsche and not to possess one.
But his most valued possessions are perhaps his collection of guitars.
He has more than 20 of them and they are for making cool music, and whenever at home, he can play guitar the whole day long, to master for example Deep Purple's classic Burn and John Mayer Trio's Who Did You Think I Was.
''I actually don't like singing,'' he revealed. ''In my heart, I'm a musician and ultimately I want to follow my heart and play music till I'm 60, 70 or as long as I can still carry a guitar.''
He may not place singing as his top pleasure, but now the whole country is watching him and his protege do the singing in the finals of The Voice.
Let's see if Saharat will cap off his big year with the biggest win of his career yet.
The humorous side of Saharat Sangkapricha in Wongkamlao The Series .
