When an open casting call went out for the latest instalment of Jack Neo’s blockbuster ‘Ah Boys To Men’ franchise, all sorts of audition clips started popping up on social media, from earnest attempts showcasing some serious acting chops to others that were very obviously just having a laugh with it.
Zhin Sadali, meanwhile, wasn’t even sure if he wanted to try out at first. The actor and content creator, who is managed by TheSmartLocal, had already spent years working his way from YouTube videos to Mediacorp dramas, so making the leap to film felt like a natural next step.
Still, when the opportunity actually landed in front of him, he hesitated.
“I was thinking to myself, like, do I really want to do this?” he told MS News at Punggol Fire Station, where filming for ‘Ah Boys To Firefighters’ was taking place on a sweltering Monday afternoon.
It was his manager who convinced him to record a submission and send it in. The gamble paid off: the production team reached out, and before long, Zhin had landed his first-ever movie role — in one of Singapore’s most recognisable film series, no less.
“I’m so glad that I did it,” he gushed.
To be in a Jack Neo movie, that has been one of my dreams ever since I joined the media industry, and right now I feel like I’m living the dream.
In ‘Ah Boys To Firefighters’ (renamed from ‘Ah Boys To Firemen’ to be more inclusive of the team’s female members), Zhin plays Lieutenant Hakimi, a Rota Commander in the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) who, as he put it, is basically the “good cop” to franchise staple Tosh Zhang’s “bad cop”, Sergeant Encik Ong.
Getting the role was the easy part compared to what came next.
Before filming began, Zhin and the rest of the cast underwent a three-day crash course at the Civil Defence Academy, where they learnt everything from how to put on the SCDF’s Firefighting Protective Suits (FFPS), also known as bunker gear, to the commands used during an emergency.
As a Rota Commander, he also had to learn how to lead a team in the middle of an incident. Easy enough when everything is calm, but a whole different story in a fire simulation, where “there’s a lot of smoke” and visibility quickly becomes a blur.
Recalling one brief moment of panic during training, Zhin said his team was about to move in when they realised their hose was too short.
“I had to think on the spot,” he said. “It was very, very intense.”
It was experiences like these that changed the way he saw firefighting itself. Before the movie, Zhin admitted that he mostly thought firefighters simply battled flames, only to discover how much more the role involves, from responding to road accidents to rescuing people trapped in high-rise buildings.
“You have to be quick, and you have to think on your feet,” he said, adding that he came away with a newfound respect for SCDF personnel.
Then there was the physical challenge of simply wearing the gear. With the FFPS, helmet, breathing apparatus, and everything else on, Zhin estimated that he was carrying an additional 15kg.
Fortunately for him, fitness was already a big part of his life. Besides being a spin instructor, he has been training for the upcoming HYROX competition in November and had signed up for a gym membership before he even knew he would be joining the movie.
Now, he trains about five times a week, sometimes squeezing in a session after filming or waking up earlier to get one done beforehand.
“I feel like I am the fittest I’ve ever been,” he said, joking that he had discovered “shapes and tones” in places he did not think possible at 33.
The original ‘Ah Boys To Men’ hit cinemas in 2012 and went on to spawn several sequels while catapulting then-newcomers like Tosh Zhang, Noah Yap, and Maxi Lim to household-name status. So for Zhin, stepping into that already well-established world naturally came with a certain weight.
On top of joining a cast that audiences have known for more than a decade, he also felt a responsibility to do justice to both the SCDF and the Malay community through his role. But any nerves quickly eased once he started working with the returning cast.
“They are very, very nurturing,” Zhin said, adding that Zhang, Yap, and Lim were generous with advice and would regularly pull him aside with suggestions on how he could approach a scene differently.
One thing they kept reminding him, he said, was to stay flexible and not get too attached to the script. Yap echoed that in a separate interview with MS News, quipping: “The biggest advice that we gave to the new people is to just throw the script away lah.”
True enough, Neo would tweak lines and performances depending on how the set, mood, and scene felt in the moment.
“So there’s actually no point memorising the script,” Zhin laughed. “Come to set with an open mind. Don’t fixate on what your lines are, because Jack wants everything to feel very natural, very real.”
That more improvisational way of working took some getting used to, especially for someone still finding his footing on his first film. But one early script-reading session with Neo gave Zhin a welcome confidence boost.
He and Zhang had an intense scene together, and Zhin went in expecting to run through it several times before they landed on the right mood and tone. Instead, they got through it once before Neo simply said: “Can already.”
For Zhin, that was enough to ease some of the self-doubt and remind him that, movie debut or not, he had earned his place there. And perhaps that reassurance meant a little more because, somewhere along the way, he had also been given reason to wonder how far he could really go.
One offhand comment from a director had stuck with him: that acting had a “shelf life”. Rather than letting it get to him, Zhin turned it into something of a personal challenge and told himself: “One day I’m gonna be in a movie.”
Call it manifestation, luck, fate, or what have you, but that declaration has finally come true.
“They say that your prime is in your 20s,” he said. “But I think I’m living proof that life gets better when you’re in your 30s.”
‘Ah Boys To Firefighters’ is slated to hit cinemas during Chinese New Year 2027.
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Featured image by MS News. Photography by Toan Ngo Huy.