Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/entertainment/movie/34338/divine-intervention
THAILAND, March 12, 2010: In Thailand, Hindu ceremonies are a must for the showbiz people. The rite is a necessity for studio execs, directors, stars and crew who seek comfort from the divine before they go into the set.
Usually, practitioners of traditional Thai arts, like puppetry, masked dance or muay Thai, must perform the wai kru rite — paying respects to the teachers — before going on stage. The same philosophy seems to have trickled into the relatively recent art of movie-making. Since the early days, Thai film actors and directors came from the stage, but along the way, the rite morphed into the act of asking the assembly of Indian gods, especially Ganesha, the protector of artists, to come down from their abodes to bless the operation. Like other ceremonies in Buddhist Thailand, the Hindu influence lends mystique that is sometimes synonymous with luck, confidence and moral uplift.
”The studio executives and directors want to go onto the set without worries. They want the operation to be smooth,” says Sophon Chuwatsawasdi, who has performed the Hindu ritual for television and movie sets for 10 years _ though he’s not ordained as a Priest. ”It’s a way to boost the morale of the crew, to give them the confidence that the shoot will be accident-free. For the executives, the rite also makes them feel that the movie or the TV series will be a financial success.”
The first day of shooting is usually timed to the lucky moment calculated from planetary movements, and sometimes even the release date of a movie is predicted by an astrologer.