Haridwar: Hollywood actor Will Smith on Monday garnered attention worldwide when he walked up to the stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock after the latter pulled out a bad joke on Jada Pinkett Smith. Rock was announcing the winners of Oscars 2022 as its host.
While the audience at the Dolby Theatre and fans at their homes were shocked, ETV Bharat spoke to Will Smith's Indian religious guru Prateek Mishrapuri on the actor's ties with Haridwar, the gateway to gods — a point of entry to Dev Bhoomi and Char Dham: four main centers of pilgrimage in Uttarakhand - Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
On Smith slapping Rock, Mishrapuri said, "Will Smith is not an angry person at all. Yes, definitely he remains very concerned about his family. While he was visiting here, he was in constant touch with his family (back in the US in one way or the other)," Mishrapuri said.
"Whatever happened on the Oscars stage has happened only because of the anchor (Chris Rock). Nature of Will Smith is not as such," the guru said while expressing joy over the veteran Hollywood star winning his first-ever Academy award on the same stage where he slapped the host.
"I am happy. The blessings of Hindu deities are with him. Today, he has received the Oscar," Mishrapuri added. Earlier in the day, Will Smith was declared the Oscar Award winner for Best Actor for the film 'King Richard' at the Oscars. The film is a biopic of Richard Williams, father of tennis players Serena Williams and Venus Williams.
Earlier in 2018, Will Smith had come to India for a special ritual in Haridwar. It was during this visit, the actor met Mishrapuri to perform a ritual according to Hindu planetary constellations. Will Smith also expressed his quest to learn about Indian civilization and culture, Mishrapuri, who read the stars of the star, said.
As per the actor's planetary constellations, Mishrapuri had performed some rituals of worship in the Haridwar Shiva temple. Mishrapuri had said that the actor came to know about the astrologer through another Hollywood artist. After a series of telephonic conversations, Smith decided to visit India.
During his visit, Smith also attended the consecration of Lord Shiva and participated in Ganga Aarti. "When I saw Will Smith's birth chart, I found that his planetary constellations were very good. There was the conjunction of Venus inside Libra and Mars was very strong, at that time," the astrologer had said as what he had read.
Also Read: Oscars 2022: Will Smith slaps Chris Rock
