title: Blackpool

text: Several renowned wrestlers have invested in Blackpool. Kendo Nagasaki owns the Trades Hotel and KAOS Nightclub, Rex Strong (born Barry Shearman, 1942–2017) owned the Hadley Hotel, and Johnny Saint owned a block of holiday flats in the town. Shirley "Big Daddy" Crabtree worked as a lifeguard on Central Pier. He was reunited, on a 1979 edition of ITV's "This Is Your Life", with a woman whose life he had saved in the course of his duties.


title: Blackpool

text: The Blackpool Combat Club, a heel faction in All Elite Wrestling led by Regal, was named in honour of Blackpool.


title: Blackpool

text: Blackpool has a number of Christian churches, including 18 Anglican and 10 Catholic churches. Other Christian groups in the town include Blackpool Baptist Tabernacle, Blackpool Christian Centre, Blackpool Community Church, Kings Christian Centre, Liberty Church, and New Life Community Church. The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes is now redundant and is being converted into a community centre by the Historic Chapels Trust.


title: Blackpool

text: There were previously two synagogues in Blackpool for its Jewish population, now down to one. The Blackpool Reform Jewish Congregation caters to the Reform population and is located on Raikes Parade with a synagogue hall and classroom facilities, a purpose-built sanctuary hall and an assembly room. Blackpool United Hebrew Congregation was an Orthodox synagogue located on Leamington Road with a synagogue hall and community centre. The synagogue closed in May 2012 due to a declining Orthodox population, with the final rabbi David Braunold having retired in 2011. As of January 2022, the building which formerly housed the synagogue was awaiting new use.


title: Blackpool

text: There is a residential Buddhist Centre in North Shore called Keajra Kadampa Buddhist Centre which is a member of the New Kadampa Tradition. There are also two mosques for the Muslim population: the purpose-built Blackpool Central Mosque & Islamic Community Centre is located on Revoe Street and provides prayer facilities while the Blackpool Islamic Community Centre (BICC) offers Islamic education.


title: Blackpool

text: Blackpool also has small communities of Bahaʼis, Hindus, Jains, Mormons, and Sikhs. The Blackpool Faith Forum was established in 2001 in conjunction with Blackpool Council to provide interfaith dialogue between the various faith groups in the town, to raise awareness of the various faiths in the town and to promote a multifaith community. It is linked to the Interfaith Network of UK. In February 2007 a youth forum was established, Blackpool Faith Forum for Youth (BIFFY).


title: Blackpool

text: As well as 29 state primary schools and eight state secondary schools, there is also a range of activities for children and young people in the town. Some of these are delivered by "Blackpool Young People Services" (a part of Blackpool Council).


title: Blackpool

text: A number of shipwrecks have occurred on the coastline of Blackpool. The most recent occurrence was the grounding of the cruiser "Coco Leoni" in March 2008. Famously, in 1897, HMS "Foudroyant", Nelson's flagship before HMS "Victory", was grounded close to North Pier in a storm.


title: Blackpool

text: Blackpool has experienced numerous high-profile crimes since the early 20th century. In 2012, Blackpool was identified as a "crime hotspot", and in 2016 was revealed as having the fourth-highest murder rate in the UK. Rates of violent crime, sexual assault and domestic violence exceed national averages.


title: Blackpool

text: In 1913, the "Brides in the Bath" serial killer George Joseph Smith drowned his second wife Alice in their rented room of a boarding house on Regent Road. He was due to be the beneficiary of a sizeable life insurance policy upon his wife's death.


title: Blackpool

text: In 1971, Supt Gerry Richardson, 38, was shot dead while chasing a gang of London thugs who had robbed a resort jewellers. The five-man group bungled the raid on Preston's Jewellers in the Strand. They arrived late and failed to check a back room where the shop manager had already raised a silent alarm connected to Blackpool Police Station. As the gang made their getaway they became involved in a high-speed chase through the streets of North Shore which ended with Supt Richardson's tragic murder at the hands of "Fat" Freddie Sewell. Supt Richardson was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1972. Wounded Inspector Carl Walker also received the George Cross.


title: Blackpool

text: In 1972, Dr Ahmad Alami (the son of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem) murdered three sleeping children at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. He also stabbed two nurses and other children sleeping on the ward. Alami was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and judged unfit to stand trial. He was detained at Broadmoor high security hospital for several years before being released and deported back to his native Jordan.


title: Blackpool

text: In 1999, Stuart Michael Diamond was convicted of the brutal murder of a homeless 17-year-old heroin addict, Christopher Hartley. Diamond murdered Hartley and dismembered his body before 'dumping' the remains in a hotel 'swill bin'; Hartley's head was never recovered.


title: Blackpool

text: In 2007, the jury in the case of the alleged rape and murder of Blackpool schoolgirl Charlene Downes, 14, heard a police surveillance tape of Jordanian Iyad Albattikhi, 29, and Iranian Mohammed Reveshi, 50, allegedly detailing her stabbing, and her later alleged disposal in their "Funny Boyz" kebab shop's mincing machine by the prosecution. Albattikhi allegedly boasted that he had sold her remains in kebabs. Both men were acquitted of the alleged offence. John Bromley-Davenport, for the defence, said: "We have uncovered within the Blackpool Police force an astonishing catalogue of incompetence, failure to disclose, manipulation and lies, some of which were uttered on oath during the trial last year. If the jury at that trial had swallowed the lies and been duped by the manipulation then a grave miscarriage of justice would have occurred."


title: Blackpool

text: Fifteen-year-old Paige Chivers went missing in 2007 after leaving her home in Bispham. In 2015 Robert Ewing was convicted of her murder. Her body has never been found. Her father Frank Chivers was murdered in 2013.


title: Blackpool

text: On 25 July 2010, nurse Jane Clough was stabbed to death in Victoria Hospital's car park. Her ex-boyfriend Jonathan Vass, a paramedic, was later found guilty of her murder.


title: Blackpool

text: On 31 January 2013, 16-year-old student Sasha Marsden was sexually assaulted, stabbed to death and her body set on fire.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: Clitoria ternatea, commonly known as Asian pigeonwings, bluebellvine, blue pea, butterfly pea, cordofan pea or Darwin pea is a plant species belonging to the family Fabaceae, endemic and native to the Indonesian island of Ternate.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: The genus name of "Clitoria" is a direct translation from the local name of these plant in the Ternate language; which called as , literally means "clitoris" due to its shape that resembles the shape of human female genitals. The first reference to the genus, which includes an illustration of the plant, was made in 1678 by Jakób Breyne, a Polish naturalist, who described it as "Flos clitoridis ternatensibus", meaning 'Ternatean flower of the clitoris'. Meanwhile on the other hand, the species name is derived from the name of the island where these Linnaeus's specimens originated; which is the Ternate Island located in northern part of the Maluku Islands.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: This plant is native to equatorial Asia, including locations in South Asia and Southeast Asia but has also been introduced to Africa, Australia and the Americas.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: It is a perennial herbaceous plant, with elliptic, obtuse leaves. It grows as a vine or creeper, doing well in moist, neutral soil.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: Its most striking feature is the color of its flowers, a vivid deep blue; solitary, with light yellow markings. They are about long by wide. Some varieties yield white flowers.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: It is grown as an ornamental plant and as a revegetation species (e.g., in coal mines in Australia), requiring little care when cultivated. As a legume, its roots form a symbiotic association with soil bacteria known as rhizobia, which transform atmospheric N into a plant-usable form (a process called nitrogen fixing), therefore, this plant is also used to improve soil quality through the decomposition of nitrogen rich plant material.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: In Southeast Asia, the flower is used as a natural food colouring to colour glutinous rice and desserts like the Eurasian putugal as well as an Ayurvedic medicine. In Kelantan, in the north-east of peninsular Malaysia, it is an important ingredient in "nasi kerabu", giving it its characteristic bluish colour. In Burmese and Thai cuisines, the flowers are also dipped in butter and fried. It is also used to colour the Nyonya dish Pulot tartal.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: Butterfly pea flower tea is made from the ternatea flowers and dried lemongrass and changes color depending on what is added to the liquid, with lemon juice turning it purple. In Thailand and Vietnam, this butterfly blue pea flower tea is commonly mixed with honey and lemon to increase acidity and turn the beverage a pink-purple color, to produce for a drink usually served after dinner, or as a refreshment at hotels and spas. The drink is a typical local drink like chamomile tea is in other parts of the world. The tea is found in both hot and cold varieties


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: The flowers have more recently been used in a color-changing gin. Blue in the bottle, it turns pink when mixed with a carbonated mixer such as tonic water due to the change in pH. As organic colours are not permanent, this type of gin is recommended to be stored in a dark place to maintain the effect.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: In traditional Ayurvedic medicine, it is ascribed with various qualities including memory enhancing, nootropic, antistress, anxiolytic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant, tranquilizing, and sedative properties. In traditional Chinese medicine, the plant has been ascribed properties affecting female libido due to its similar appearance to the female reproductive organ. Using its extract have also shown its ability to reduce intensity of behavior caused by serotonin and acetylcholine.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: Its extracts possess a wide range of pharmacological activities including antimicrobial, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, diuretic, local anesthetic, antidiabetic, insecticidal, blood platelet aggregation-inhibiting and for use as a vascular smooth muscle relaxing properties. This plant has a long use in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for several diseases and the scientific studies has reconfirmed those with modern relevance.


title: Clitoria ternatea

text: Chemical compounds isolated from "C. ternatea" include various triterpenoids, flavonol glycosides, anthocyanins and steroids. Cyclic peptides known as cliotides have been isolated from the heat-stable fraction of "C. ternatea" extract. The blue colour of "C. ternatea" is a result of various anthocyanins, most importantly ternatins - polyacylated derivatives of delphinidin 3,3', 5'-triglucoside (Da-T).


title: Helianthus

text: Helianthus () is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of "Helianthus" are native to North America and Central America. The best-known species is the common sunflower ("Helianthus annuus"), whose round flower heads in combination with the ligules look like the Sun. This and other species, notably Jerusalem artichoke ("H. tuberosus"), are cultivated in temperate regions and some tropical regions, as food crops for humans, cattle, and poultry, and as ornamental plants. The species "H. annuus" typically grows during the summer and into early fall, with the peak growth season being mid-summer.


title: Helianthus

text: Several perennial "Helianthus" species are grown in gardens, but have a tendency to spread rapidly and can become aggressive. On the other hand, the whorled sunflower, "Helianthus verticillatus", was listed as an endangered species in 2014 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule protecting it under the Endangered Species Act. The primary threats are industrial forestry and pine plantations in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. They grow to and are primarily found in woodlands, adjacent to creeks and moist, prairie-like areas.


title: Helianthus

text: Sunflowers are usually tall annual or perennial plants that in some species can grow to a height of or more. Each "flower" is actually a disc made up of tiny flowers, to form a larger false flower to better attract pollinators. The plants bear one or more wide, terminal capitula (flower heads made up of many tiny flowers), with bright yellow ray florets (mini flowers inside a flower head) at the outside and yellow or maroon (also known as a brown/red) disc florets inside. Several ornamental cultivars of "H. annuus" have red-colored ray florets; all of them stem from a single original mutant. While the majority of sunflowers are yellow, there are branching varieties in other colours including, orange, red and purple.


title: Helianthus

text: The petiolate leaves are dentate and often sticky. The lower leaves are opposite, ovate, or often heart-shaped. The rough and hairy stem is branched in the upper part in wild plants, but is usually unbranched in domesticated cultivars.


title: Helianthus

text: This genus is distinguished technically by the fact that the ray florets (when present) are sterile, and by the presence on the disk flowers of a pappus that is of two awn-like scales that are caducous (that is, easily detached and falling at maturity). Some species also have additional shorter scales in the pappus, and one species lacks a pappus entirely. Another technical feature that distinguishes the genus more reliably, but requires a microscope to see, is the presence of a prominent, multicellular appendage at the apex of the style. Further, the florets of a sunflower are arranged in a natural spiral.


title: Helianthus

text: Variability is seen among the perennial species that make up the bulk of those in the genus. Some have most or all of the large leaves in a rosette at the base of the plant and produce a flowering stem that has leaves that are reduced in size. Most of the perennials have disk flowers that are entirely yellow, but a few have disk flowers with reddish lobes. One species, "H. radula", lacks ray flowers altogether.


title: Helianthus

text: Overall, the macroevolution of the "Helianthus" is driven by multiple biotic and abiotic factors and influences various floral morphology.


title: Helianthus

text: The growth of a sunflower depends strictly on its genetic makeup and background. Additionally, the season it is planted will have effects on its development; those seasons tend to be in the middle of summer and beginning of fall. Sunflower development is classified by a series of vegetative stages and reproductive stages that can be determined by identifying the heads or main branch of a single head or branched head.


title: Helianthus

text: The geographical history of this genus accounts for its evolutionary history, with its levels of genetic variation across its gene pool increasing as new hybrids are created both for commercial use and in the wild. As a result, sunflower species are also experiencing a genetic bottleneck as a result of selective breeding for industrial use.


title: Helianthus

text: Before blooming, "Helianthus" plant heads tilt during the day to face the sun. This movement is referred to as heliotropism, which continues for a short time when flower buds form and young "Helianthus" heads track the Sun. At night, the flower heads reorient their position and face East in anticipation for the sunrise. Sunflowers move back to their original position between 3am and 6am, and the leaves follow about an hour later.


title: Helianthus

text: By the time they are mature and reach anthesis, "Helianthus" generally stop moving and remain facing east, which lets them be warmed by the rising sun. Historically, this has led to controversy on whether or not "Helianthus" is heliotropic, as many scientists have failed to observe movement when studying plants that have already bloomed.


title: Helianthus

text: This is notably different from heliotropism in leaves, as the moving mechanism for leaves exists in the pulvinus. Since flowers do not have pulvini, the movement is caused by increased growth rate of the stems. The growth rate accumulation of the stem on the east side of the stem gradually pushes the flower from east to west during daytime. This matches with the sun as it rises from the east and falls in the west. At night, the growth rate is higher in the west side of the stem that gradually pushes the flower from the west side back to the east side. In addition, it is not actually the whole plant that changes its direction to face the sun, but the flower itself that bends to be illuminated by the sun rays.


title: Helianthus

text: The heliotropic movement is caused by growth on the opposite side of the flower, driven by accumulation of growth hormones during Sun exposure.


title: Helianthus

text: Heliotropism persists on cloudy days when the sun is not shining brightly, meaning that the movement is endogenous as a trained and continuous process. However, flower movement does not occur during long periods of rain or clouds. It also does not occur in a growth chamber when exposed to 16 hours of light or in greenhouses, suggesting that the plants require a directional, moving light source. Helianthus can also discriminate between different types of light. When exposed to different light frequencies, the hypocotyls will bend toward blue light but not red light, depending on the quality of the light source.


title: Helianthus

text: It is the circadian rhythms and the differences of the stem growth rate that work together and cause the heliotropism of the "Helianthus". This is important for attracting pollinators and increasing growth metabolism. Future studies are needed for identifying the exact physiological basis and cellular mechanism for this behavior.


title: Helianthus

text: The seeds of "H. annuus" are used as human food. Most cultivars of sunflower are variants of "H. annuus", but four other species (all perennials) are also domesticated. This includes "H. tuberosus", the Jerusalem artichoke, which produces edible tubers.


title: Helianthus

text: There are many species in the sunflower genus "Helianthus", and many species in other genera that may be called sunflowers.


title: Helianthus

text: Sunflowers have been proven to be excellent plants to attract beneficial insects, including pollinators. "Helianthus spp." are a nectar producing flowering plant that attract pollinators and parasitoids which reduce the pest populations in nearby crop vegetation. Sunflowers attract different beneficial pollinators (e.g., honey bees) and other known insect prey to feed on and control the population of parasitic pests that could be harmful to the crops. Predacious insects are first attracted to sunflowers once they are planted. Once the "Helianthus spp." reaches six inches and produces flowers it begins to attract more pollinators. Distance between sunflower rows and crop vegetation plays an important role in this phenomenon, hypothesizing that closer proximity to the crops will increase insect attraction.


title: Helianthus

text: In addition to pollinators of "Helianthus spp"., there are other factors such as abiotic stress, florivory, and disease which also contribute to the evolution of floral traits. These selective pressures, which stem from several biotic and abiotic factors are associated with habitat environmental conditions which all play a role in the overall morphology of the sunflowers’ floral traits.


title: Helianthus

text: An ecosystem is composed of both biotic (which are living elements of an ecosystem such as plants, animals, fungi, protists, and bacteria), and abiotic factors (non-living elements of an ecosystem such as air, soil, water, light, salinity and temperature).


title: Helianthus

text: It is thought that two biotic factors can explain for the evolution of larger sunflowers and why they are present in more drier environments. For one thing, the selection by pollinators is thought to have increased the sunflower’s size in a drier environment. This is because in a drier environment, there are typically less pollinators. As a result, in order for the sunflower to be able to attract more pollinators, they had to increase the morphology of their floral traits in that they had to increase their display size. Another biotic factor that can explain for the evolution of larger sunflowers in drier environments is that the pressure from florivory and disease favors smaller flowers in habitats that have a more moderate supply of moisture (mesic habitat). Wetter environments usually have more dense vegetation, more herbivores, and more surrounding pathogens. As larger flowers are typically more susceptible to disease and florivory, smaller flowers may have evolved in wetter environments which explains the evolution of larger sunflowers in more drier environments.


title: Anniyan

text: Anniyan () is a 2005 Indian Tamil-language psychological action thriller film written and directed by S. Shankar and produced by V. Ravichandran of Aascar Films. The plot centres on a disillusioned everyman whose frustration at what he sees as increasing social apathy and public negligence leads to a split personality that attempts to improve the system. Vikram stars as Ambi, an idealistic, law-abiding lawyer who has Dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as Multiple personality disorder) and develops two other identities: a suave fashion model named Remo and a murderous vigilante named Anniyan. Sadha plays the female lead role. Actors Vivek, Nedumudi Venu, Nassar and Prakash Raj also featured in the film.


title: Anniyan

text: Shankar conceived the film in mid-2003 during the post-production period of his previous film, "Boys". He based the film on his own life experiences during his formative years when he was disturbed by what he saw around him, and his eventual displeasure with the society. Pre-production for "Anniyan" began in November 2003 and principal photography in March 2004. The making of the film, which included numerous production delays, took 14 months. The film was shot at Hyderabad, Thanjavur, Tindivanam and Chennai, and the song sequences were filmed in Mumbai, Malaysia, Amsterdam and Tenkasi. The film was notable for its recreation of the "Tyagaraja Aradhana" music festival and the extensive use of time slice photography in an action sequence.


title: Anniyan

text: Cinematographer V. Manikandan abandoned the project halfway through, until he was replaced with Ravi Varman. The technical departments were headed by V. T. Vijayan (editing), Sabu Cyril (production design), and Peter Hein (stunt choreography), and the soundtrack was composed by Harris Jayaraj, who was in his first collaboration with the director. The film was touted as the director's "magnum opus" and was budgeted at 263.8 million, making it at the time of its release the most expensive South Indian film ever made. Notably, it was the first South Indian film to obtain institutional finance, and it had the highest insurance coverage available for films at that time.


title: Anniyan

text: Originally filmed in Tamil, and released simultaneously in the 4 South Indian states on 10 June 2005, the film was dubbed into Telugu as "Aparichithudu" and Hindi as "Aparichit The Stranger", was released a year later on 19 May 2006. Further, the film was also dubbed into French and released in French-speaking countries worldwide by Columbia Tristar. The film received positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success across South India, but the Hindi version received a below average response and was a box-office failure. Because of receiving good response, "Anniyan" grossed 60 crore in its lifetime run. In addition to winning a record breaking eight Filmfare Awards and six State Film Awards, the film also won a National Award in the Special Effects category.


title: Anniyan

text: Ramanujam Iyengar alias Ambi is a straightforward consumer protection advocate from Triplicane, Chennai. He expects everyone to follow the law and prosecutes those who violate it. However, his efforts fail as circumstantial evidences always seem to favour the accused. His efforts to raise civic awareness go in vain due to pervasive corruption and a general lack of seriousness. Frustrated at his inability to bring about a change in society, his suppressed anger manifests itself in an alter ego named Anniyan, a grim reaper-themed vigilante who murders corrupt and indifferent people. Anniyan creates a website, compiles a list of wrongdoers in it and kills them using punishments described in one of the ancient Hindu scriptures Garuda Puranam.


title: Anniyan

text: Ambi is secretly in love with his neighbour Nandini, a medical student and an aspiring Carnatic singer, but never expresses his feelings due to fear of rejection. When he does get the courage to do so during the annual Tyagaraja Aradhana with the help of his friend, Sub-inspector Chari, she rejects him as she cannot bear his overbearing nature and constant complaining and nitpicking. Distraught, Ambi attempts suicide, almost drowning himself before having second thoughts. Subsequently, he develops another personality named Remo, a metrosexual fashion model. Nandini is smitten by Remo and falls in love with him, unaware that Remo is one of Ambi's split personalities. Their marriage is eventually fixed.


title: Anniyan

text: While purchasing a plot of land for her dowry, Nandini decides to undervalue the property to evade stamp duty. Ambi, who accompanies her to the government office, refuses to help her on learning of her intention to skirt the law. Later, when Nandini and Remo are on a date, Remo transforms into Anniyan and attempts to punish her for her corrupt act. As he is about to kill her, Nandini calls out for Ambi. Anniyan then reverts to Ambi, who collapses and loses consciousness. Nandini takes Ambi to NIMHANS where he is diagnosed with MPD. Through RMT, Vijaykumar, the chief psychiatrist of NIMHANS, uncovers Ambi's past. It is revealed that when Ambi was ten years old, he witnessed the accidental death of his younger sister Vidya due to civic apathy.


title: Anniyan

text: The incident left a deep emotional scar, which is the reason for his lofty ideals. It is also discovered that while Anniyan and Remo are aware of Ambi as a separate person, Ambi is oblivious to their existence within him. Vijaykumar declares that Remo will cease to exist if Nandini reciprocates Ambi's feelings, but Anniyan will cease to exist only when the society reforms. Nandini accepts Ambi's love and Remo disappears.


title: Anniyan

text: Meanwhile, DCP Prabhakar and Chari investigate the murders committed by Anniyan. In disguises, they discover clues left behind by Anniyan, which are the names of the punishments he meted out to his victims. Prabhakar is personally determined to punish Anniyan, as one of his victims, Chockalingam, an errant catering contractor with the Indian Railways, was his elder brother. In a dramatic publicity stunt, Anniyan admits to the murders he committed when he appears amidst the public and the press at the Nehru Stadium. He explains the rationale behind them and says that only when every Indian is responsible and sincere will the country prosper on par with developed nations. His methods draw both praise and criticism. Prabhakar tries to catch Anniyan, but he escapes.


title: Anniyan

text: On investigating the phone records and IP address of Anniyan's internet activity, Prabhakar discovers that the connection belongs to Ambi. Upon further analysis of a security footage of Anniyan's public appearance, Ambi's face is revealed under the hood. Prabhakar arrests Ambi and subjects him to a polygraph test to make him confess to his crimes. The officers see that he is telling the truth and is oblivious to killing anyone, believing his innocence. Prabhakar, enraged and not having any of it, orders all the officers and Chari to leave, and begins brutally attacking and tormenting Ambi alone with Garuda Puranam punishments. Ambi is eventually thrown into a boiling hot salt water tank by Prabhakar.


title: Anniyan

text: When a traumatised Ambi begs for mercy, Prabhakar mockingly turns on the water cooler, making the water extremely cold to the point it becomes ice so that Ambi will freeze to death. The near-death experience and pain triggers Anniyan's reappearance. Ambi's personality alternates between Ambi and Anniyan; he brutally subdues Prabhakar as Anniyan, while begging for mercy as Ambi. Later, when Ambi is tried for several murders, Vijaykumar testifies to Ambi's mental condition. Chari also had secretly recorded Ambi's interrogation and torture at Prabhakar's hands and presents it as evidence of Ambi's mental condition. Ambi is acquitted, but is directed to undergo psychotherapy in a mental hospital and will be eligible for release when cured.


title: Anniyan

text: When Ambi is released two years later, his rigid adherence to protocol has diminished and he appears more open and accommodating. He marries Nandini. and while travelling on a train during their honeymoon, Ambi notices a man (an electrician who was indirectly responsible for his sister's death several years ago) drinking amidst fellow passengers. Moving himself and Nandini away from the man, he surreptitiously makes his way back to the compartment and throws the man off the train, killing him. However, he hides the incident from Nandini, revealing that instead of Ambi eradicating his other personality, both have blended into one identity.


title: Anniyan

text: During the making of his Hindi film directorial debut "Nayak" starring Anil Kapoor in early 2001, director S. Shankar had conceived a science fiction film titled "Robot". A futuristic techno-thriller set in the 22nd century Chennai, the film was to star Kamal Haasan and Preity Zinta. However, after completing a photo-shoot featuring the two, the production was shelved due to various reasons, including Haasan's unavailability of dates and creative differences with the director. Shankar postponed the project indefinitely and made the coming of age film, "Boys" (2003). When the post-production work of "Boys" was underway, Shankar was awaiting the return of its composer A. R. Rahman, who was then outside India, to complete the background score. In the meantime, Shankar had an idea for a storyline and called Vikram, who expressed enthusiasm for the subject.


title: Anniyan

text: Following the release of "Boys" in August 2003, Shankar began work on his next directorial venture entitled "Anniyan". It was initially thought to be Shankar's pet project "Robot" revived with a new title, but this was later proven not to be correct. Shankar said the film was his "dream project" and disclosed that it would be a racy, fantasy-thriller. When questioned on how the idea behind the film had come to him, the director revealed, "The seeds of all my movies were sown when I was young, long before I started making movies. So many things disturbed me, and these stayed with me. Those were the seeds. I make films based on them."


title: Anniyan

text: With the highest production value among Tamil films of its time, the film was touted to be the director's "magnum opus" and was labelled "the most eagerly awaited film of the year" by the media. The film deals with a person having dissociative identity disorder, commonly known as "multiple personality disorder" (MPD) or "split personality syndrome". It was compared to "Chandramukhi", released two months before, as it also focused on a character with the same syndrome.


title: Anniyan

text: To portray the lead character, Shankar needed a performer who could play an action hero. He chose Vikram as he felt that the actor, in addition to being a performer, had the image of an action hero. While his casting was made public in a November 2003 news report announcing the project's inception, the director revealed that Vikram was added to the cast in mid-2003 and refuted theories that the actor's casting was to capitalise on his new-found popularity following his success at the National Film Awards, where he won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film "Pithamagan" (2003). Stating that Vikram was selected for the lead role months before the theatrical release of "Pithamagan", Shankar added, "I don't look at actors that way." He further remarked that Vikram was the "life and soul" of "Anniyan".


title: Anniyan

text: The heroine role of a "devoted Iyengar Brahmin girl" was originally offered to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who was too busy to accommodate production dates. After months of waiting for her call sheet, Shankar eventually offered the role to Sadha. Expressing hope that it would be "an important movie" in her career, Sadha accepted the offer, working on the film for 120 days, adding, "I have a major role to play in "Anniyan". There are few heavy portions involving me in the movie that I have given my best." She considered being a part of a Shankar film, especially during the early stages of her career, as a "god's gift" and a "once-in-a-lifetime experience". However, when offered similar roles following the film's success, she refused to be typecast and stated, "I am now looking for roles where my creative potential is tapped. I don't want to be part of such cinema where all one has to do is dance around trees."


title: Anniyan

text: Vivek, Prakash Raj, Nedumudi Venu and Nassar appear in supporting roles. Mohan Vaidhya, a carnatic vocalist and occasional actor, plays a minuscule role as Sadha's father Krishna. Malavika Avinash was approached to play Vikram's mother; she rejected the offer, stating, "I am too young to do a screen mom and too old to be a heroine!" Cochin Haneefa, Charle, Kalabhavan Mani, Shanmugarajan and Saurabh Shukla make cameo appearances as delinquent citizens. Haneefa played an indifferent car owner who refuses to help an accident victim as he does not want his "brand new car" to be soiled with blood. Following Haneefa's death in February 2010, Vikram recalled the actor's appearance in the film and said, "Though he'd come only in a few scenes no one could miss him. For roles that have some ambiguity about whether it's a good guy or a bad guy, he is one of the best choices. Until the end, one cannot really guess if he'll end up being good or bad." Comedian and character artiste Charle played an unnamed wastrel and alcoholic who extorts money from his ageing parents for his expenses and is considered by Anniyan to be a liability to society. Charle was instructed by Shankar, "People should see only the character. Only later should they realise that it was Charle."


title: Anniyan

text: The role of the younger Ambi was played by child actor Hari Prashanth alias Viraj. When he came to the recording studio to voice his lines, he was accompanied by his father S. N. Surendar, a singer and dubbing artiste. Shankar recognised Surendar and asked him to lend his voice for Nedumudi Venu as the latter was a Malayali. In the 2004 comedy film "Aethirree", which featured Sadha in the female lead, Kanika played the second lead role of a "naughty" Brahmin girl. Shankar, apparently impressed with Kanika's performance in the film, asked her to attend a voice test. When the film-makers preferred Kanika's accent and modulation among the thirty females whose voices were tested, she was selected to dub for Sadha's Brahmin role.


title: Anniyan

text: The film was produced by V. Ravichandran under his own film production and distribution company 'Oscar Films' (presently 'Aascar Films'). The screenplay was written by Shankar and the film had dialogue written by writer Sujatha. Shankar retained Sabu Cyril, his production designer from "Boys", to handle the set design; the scenes were edited by V. T. Vijayan. While the action sequences were orchestrated by Peter Hein and assisted by Stunt Silva, the dance sequences were choreographed by Raju Sundaram, Kalyan and Ahmed Khan. Film institute student Prabhu Raja Chozhan, who would later turn director with "Karuppampatti" (2013), joined Shankar as his protégé and worked as his assistant.


title: Anniyan

text: Shankar, who grew up admiring the works of cinematographer P. C. Sreeram in films like "Nayakan" (1987), "Agni Natchathiram" (1988) and "Idhayathai Thirudathe" (1989), desired to collaborate and was in talks with him to handle the photography. While Sreeram was intent on working in "Anniyan", he could not accept the offer due to prior commitments. It was initially reported in the media that Sreeram had been recruited; however, Shankar chose V. Manikandan as the director of photography, impressed with his work in "Main Hoon Na" (2004). Manikandan had earlier collaborated with Shankar when he shot the music video of the song "Secret of Success" in "Boys". Manikandan gave six months of bulk dates for the project; but, when the production was troubled by delays, Shankar demanded three more months to complete the film. Manikandan walked out in October 2004 citing scheduling conflicts and Shankar replaced him with Ravi Varman.


title: Anniyan

text: During the casting stage of "Boys", the film's cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran was temporarily unavailable and his then-assistant Ravi Varman handled the camera to film Genelia D'Souza's makeup test. Subsequently, Varman nurtured a desire to work with Shankar. Before Shankar commenced work on "Anniyan", Varman expressed his desire to work in the film and was hopeful of landing the assignment. He was disappointed when Shankar recruited Manikandan for the project. However, when Manikandan abandoned the project after completing almost half the film, Shankar asked Varman to shoot the remaining portions of the film. Varman had committed to work in Bengali director Buddhadeb Dasgupta's next film, work on which was scheduled to begin shortly; he dropped out of it to accept Shankar's offer and termed working in "Anniyan" "a dream come true".


title: Anniyan

text: Vikram allotted 18 months and 190 days of his call sheet for the film, including 165 days of bulk dates spread across six months. Speaking on the extent of his involvement in the filmmaking process, Vikram said, "Before beginning the film, I was totally involved in the research and preparation, but once on the sets, I go by what the director says." He further clarified that he discussed every shot with Shankar, went for re-takes where necessary to make the scenes better, and gave suggestions, but left the "ultimate verdict" to the director. Disclosing that, among the three shades to his character, he found playing Ambi to be the toughest, he reasoned, "Because as a hero you are not used to being a wimp on screen. It's difficult digesting getting beaten up." In contrast, being a graduate in English literature, he found playing Remo much easier and more in his comfort zone.


title: Anniyan

text: In an interview with "Gulf News", Vikram spoke of the challenges in portraying all three characters while wearing the same costumes. He said, "I love such challenges. [...] Although the costume defined each of the three characters in "Anniyan", there were scenes where Ambi would suddenly become Remo and Remo would become Anniyan. There I made it dramatic to bring out each character." He credited his wife Shailaja Balakrishnan, a psychologist, for helping him in fleshing out the character of Ambi, a person who has multiple personality disorder. In a conversation with film critic Baradwaj Rangan, Shailaja recalled the times the film was being made and spoke of Vikram, saying, "I felt we should live in two houses. It's not easy to live with a man who can get that eccentric, an actor who wants to be that difficult on himself. I wouldn't say he becomes the character, but there's definitely some kind of internalisation." Vikram confessed that he had a tough time during the film's making as playing different characters affected him and he found himself going mad. He added that he would take a break after a 15-day shoot and watch the pigeons on his terrace as a way of dealing with the pressure.


title: Anniyan

text: Vikram grew a tummy to portray Ramanujam while he sported a "macho look" for Anniyan. He also grew his hair long in preparation for his role and rejected other film offers to maintain the continuity in his looks. Together with his character looks and those that he sported in the song sequences, Vikram appears in the film in 18 different getups. Vikram's look in the film was created by make-up artiste Banu. For those parts that show him as metrosexual Remo, he coloured his hair in streaks of copper and blonde. Unwilling to reveal his 'new look' until the film was ready, Vikram avoided the media despite winning the aforementioned National Award for the year 2003. Meanwhile, Sadha's make-up and hair styling were done by Mumbai-based celebrity stylist Ojas M. Rajani.


title: Anniyan

text: The film was officially launched with a traditional "puja" and muhurat shot on 4 March 2004 at AVM Studios, Chennai. The studio was decorated with life-sized stills showing Vikram in three distinct looks, "a voodoo hunter, a pious 'sami' and a bubbling youth"; this led the media to speculate that Vikram would be playing either a triple role or a character with three shades. The film's caption was 'He who comes from hell is not afraid of hot ashes'. During the launch function, Shankar expressed hope of completing the film in six months and releasing the film on 12 November 2004, coinciding with the Diwali festival. However, the production, which began shortly afterwards in May 2004, was marred by several delays and took 14 months to complete. The film was shot in Amsterdam, Malaysia, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Tenkasi, Thanjavur, Villupuram and Chennai.


title: Anniyan

text: The film features a scene at the "Thiruvaiyaru Thyagaraja Utsavam". The "Utsavam" is a week-long music festival which commemorates the 18th-century saint-composer Tyagaraja, revered as one of the greatest composers of carnatic music, and is held annually at his resting place in Thiruvaiyaru, Thanjavur. With the use of sets, the art department recreated the "Tyagaraja Aradhana" near Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu. For filming the scene, the crew recreated a performance of the famous kriti "Jagadānanda kārakā", the first of the five Pancharatna Kriti compositions of Tyagaraja, as performed during "Tyagaraja Aradhana". The "aradhana", held on the fifth day of the festival, witnesses exponents of carnatic music from across the world converging at his "samaadhi", where they sing his pancharatna kritis in unison as an homage to the saint.


title: Anniyan

text: Shankar approached violin maestro Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, a regular participant at the actual event, to conceive and orchestrate the sequence. Vaidyanathan was serving as the secretary of Sri Thyagabrahma Mahotsava Sabha, the committee which organises the "aradhana". The scene features him in a cameo and was shot in June 2004 at a studio in Chennai. Realistic sets were erected to resemble the actual venue and leading carnatic vocalists Sudha Ragunathan, Sirkazhi G. Sivachidambaram, O. S. Arun, P. Unni Krishnan and instrumentalists such as violinist A. Kanyakumari, mridangam exponent Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman were recruited to add a touch of authenticity. The two-minute scene was brought to life in "painstaking detail". The sequence was much talked about and well appreciated.


title: Anniyan

text: In a fight sequence, Anniyan encounters about a hundred martial artists inside the fictional International Martial Arts School, Vodao. The stunt scene was shot at the JJ Indoor Stadium in Chennai over a period of 25 days. Peter Hein, the stunt choreographer, is a native of Vietnam. 127 professionally trained fighters were brought in from Vietnam for the shoot. During the rehearsals, the rope, to which the stuntmen were tied and hung upside down, gave in. About a dozen stuntmen crashed down from the balcony, injuring themselves badly. The action sequence was shot using 120 cameras for employing the time slice photography technique, a visual effect known as "bullet time" and popularised by the American film "The Matrix" (1999), to achieve the frozen-time effect. Shankar had earlier toyed with the idea of time-slice and tried it while filming the song "Ale Ale" in his "Boys". While the time-freeze sequence in "Boys" was achieved by the linking of 60–62 cameras to attain a 180° rotation, "Anniyan" employed 120–122 cameras for a 270° rotation.


title: Anniyan

text: The scene where Anniyan addresses a huge gathering was shot in a stadium in Hyderabad. As he speaks to the audience, the lights turn on and off in the background. Speaking on how the sequence was filmed, Ravi Varman said that they decided not to light up the entire stadium as they felt it would have looked flat. As the sequence was important to the film, he juxtaposed the stadium with light and shadow so that it would look different. During the pre-climax scene, when Ambi is held custody and enquired by Prabhakar, Ambi's persona keeps switching between the characters Ambi and Anniyan. Dubbed the "chameleon act" in the media, Vikram claims to have completed the sequence in a single take.


title: Anniyan

text: An action sequence was filmed in a set erected in Campa Cola grounds, Chennai. For the scene where Remo courts Nandini, a chemical tube brought from Malaysia was used to measure how attractive a person is. For filming scenes based on the punishments, buffaloes and snakes were transported in hundreds exclusively from Vellore and the sequence was shot for about three days. The "Anthakoopam" punishment sequence featuring the buffaloes was filmed in a set erected in Chennai's Prasad Studios. The animals were transported in 15 lorries containing 20 buffaloes each. For the scene where Charle's character is killed by Anniyan, the studio was filled with snake charmers who were brought in to handle the large number of snakes.


title: Anniyan

text: The semi-classical song "Kumari" was the first of the scenes to be shot. Filmed at the World Flower Show in May 2004, the sequence was picturised in a large tulip garden located in the city of Vijfhuizen near Amsterdam, Netherlands. The song was shot during the Netherlands International Flower Show called Floriade, a decennial event which was held between 10 April and 20 October 2004. While the crew had planned to film another song at a garden in Keukenhof, they were denied permission by the authorities as a previous Indian film crew had damaged the habitat a few weeks before.


title: Anniyan

text: The song features the lead pair singing amidst a flower farm as mridangam and flute players accompany them in the background. It was choreographed by Raju Sundaram who also appears in a cameo, playing a harmonium. As part of their roles, the male supporting actors who appear in the song were required to wear a "panjakkacham" and "angavastram", leaving most of their body exposed to the freezing cold. The shoot began as early as 5:30 AM and the locals, who thought they should be out of their mind to be dressed so, came up to them and warned that they might freeze to death.


title: Anniyan

text: "Iyengaru Veetu", a semi-classical song, begins with a prelude of the Pancharatna Kriti "Jagadānanda kārakā". The actual song which follows later was picturised on a set erected at AVM Studios made to look like an old traditional Iyengar home in Thanjavur. The song was shot extravagantly with the lead pair and the dozens of support dancers sporting rich, colourful costumes.


title: Anniyan

text: In December 2004, a ten-day shoot was held in Mumbai for the item number "Kadhal Yaanai" featuring Vikram alongside a top model, whose identity was initially undisclosed to generate curiosity. It was later revealed to be Czech-based model Yana Gupta. Filmed by Ravi Varman and choreographed by Ahmed Khan, the song was filmed like a fashion show where Vikram and Yana Gupta wear fashionable clothes and sashay along a ramp. The song was filmed in a set erected in a studio to resemble a famous night-spot in London.


title: Anniyan

text: The track "Kannum Kannum Nokia", a peppy and trendy love duet choreographed by Raju Sundaram, was picturised on the lead pair and had them wearing costumes made entirely of designer labels. The song was picturised in Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Petronas Towers. The song, filmed during the night, was reportedly the first song to be shot at the airport. Ravi Varman revealed in an interview that the song was shot like a commercial. The song was also filmed at the Nokia Headquarters in Espoo, Finland.


title: Anniyan

text: The folk song "Andangkaaka" was shot in a village near Sengottai. For filming the song, a huge set was erected to resemble a village. The sets were visualised and created by Sabu Cyril, the film's art director. Shankar adopted a village near Tenkasi and Sabu Cyril painted all the houses, roads, rocks and even a bridge in varied colours. They then hired hundreds of lorries and old model ambassador cars and painted faces on them. The lead pair were joined by hundreds of dancers and the total cost of the song worked out to 10 million. In all, 350 houses were painted.


title: Anniyan

text: In the narrative, Ambi is referred to the website, codice_1. Shankar envisioned that the website would take visitors through all the punishments that await sinners in hell. For designing the website, Shankar wanted to recreate hell and approached the Visual Computing Labs (VCL) of Tata Elxsi, a Mumbai-based company with which he had collaborated earlier for the song "Girlfriend" in "Boys". The team at VCL conceptualised and created a 'hell' in 3d animation with the punishments taken from ancient scriptures. They also designed a grim reaper astride his bull who guides visitors through hell. Pankaj Khandpur, creative director of VCL said, "We tried to stay true to the scriptures, while creating imagery that wasn't too gory. [...] an interesting project since we had to visualise it all without any reference point." The animation was done in a span of three months.


title: Anniyan

text: VCL also did the CGI for a "cosmic zoom" scene, where the camera zooms from beyond the clouds to the streets of Chennai city, which no real camera can achieve. Aerial views and paintings of the city were stitched together along with computer generated images (CGI) of clouds to create the long, one-piece camera zoom. Animator and special effects designer L. I. Kannan, who would later turn director with the long-delayed period film "Karikalan" with Vikram in the lead, also worked on the special effects. Meanwhile, the special effects for the time-slice sequence were rendered by Big Freeze in London.


title: Anniyan

text: The scene where Anniyan addresses a packed audience in Nehru Stadium was filmed with the space empty. The crowd was created through visual effects using crowd multiplication methods. The VFX for the sequence was done under the supervision of visual effects consultant Zameer Hussain of Land Marvel Animation Studios, Chennai. The scene, in which hundreds of buffaloes chase down a delinquent car owner into an abandoned sand quarry and trample him to death, was accomplished through CGI using just one buffalo. The CG work, was supplied by Jayakumar and V. Srinivas Mohan of the Chennai-based firm, Indian Artists Computer Graphics. Srinivas and his team had earlier worked with Shankar in "Boys". Speaking of the sequence, Srinivas quipped, "The animals are lethargic and listless in their movements. Nothing can make them agile."


title: Anniyan

text: The storyline in "Anniyan" is typical of Shankar's yen for showcasing society's ills and targets the inept, rules-flouting public. The film sheds light on the increasing social apathy and public negligence, and attempts to address these issues which plague the society and hamper the development of India. S. Anand of "Outlook" noted that most of Shankar's films portray the hero as a "one-man agent of change" and cited, "From the neo-Nazi character Kamal Haasan plays in "Indian" to his last film "Anniyan", featuring a schizophrenic Brahmin serial killer who butchers 'wrongdoers', Shankar has always offered fascist-fantastic solutions to what he perceives as social ills resulting from typical governmental inertia."


title: Anniyan

text: Following the release of the trailer on 7 May 2005, the film was believed to be inspired by the 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson novel, "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". Upon the film's release, "The Hindu" drew parallels between it and the 1998 novel "Tell Me Your Dreams" by Sidney Sheldon. Shankar denied that the film was inspired by "Tell Me Your Dreams", claiming that he knew of the novel only after completing the script. Sify compared the character of Ambi to the protagonist of "The Mask" (1994), a film about a "mild mannered guy changing into a one-man army, craving to see natural justice realised".


title: Anniyan

text: The methods of punishment meted out to the sinners by Anniyan in the film is based on Garuda Purana, a Vaishnavite "purana" which speaks of life after death and punishments for wrongdoers. Shankar pointed out that he "worked tirelessly day and night and intense research was done with the help of a professor in department of Vaishnavism in Madras University."


title: Anniyan

text: The album marked Shankar's first collaboration with Harris Jayaraj; all his previous directorial ventures had A. R. Rahman composing the music. As Rahman was busy with his debut Broadway musical Bombay Dreams and had also signed up for another musical Lord of the Rings, Rahman and Shankar decided to part ways. In early 2004, Harris Jayaraj went on a trip to Phuket Islands in Thailand for some inspiration for the album; he was accompanied by Shankar and Vairamuthu. Eventually, the three songs penned by the lyricist were composed in the island. The visit took place much before the tragic 2004 tsunami struck the countries bordering the Indian Ocean and wreaked havoc. In a chat with Shankar, Harris Jayaraj said "the music was a challenge because the film was a mix of genres – action, comedy, thriller. In essence, it was a cock-mocktail .." Harris Jayaraj commenced the film's re-recording in April 2005 and took more than a month to complete, delaying the film's release. The soundtrack album features six tracks, including a theme music; the lyrics for the songs were written by Vairamuthu, Na. Muthukumar and Kabilan. The album was released as a soft launch on 13 May 2005.


title: Anniyan

text: The film cleared the censors without any cuts and was rated "U" (Universal) by the Central Board of Film Certification. While Shankar had hoped to release the film on Diwali 2004, there were numerous production delays which postponed the release date through early 2005. While production was completed in March 2005, the re-recording which began in April took more time than anticipated lasting nearly 45 days with Harris Jayaraj being blamed for further delays. After the film was postponed from 20 May 2005, and later, from 27 May 2005, the film was finally scheduled for 10 June 2005. But, Shankar released it a week later on 17 June 2005 as he considered 8 as his lucky number (1+7 yielding 8).


title: Anniyan

text: The film was dubbed into other South Indian languages and was released simultaneously in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. The film was also released in key overseas countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore. The film was released with 404 prints in Tamil and Telugu alone. Later, the film was dubbed into French by Paramount Pictures. Reportedly, "Anniyan" is the first Indian film to be dubbed into French and released in French-speaking countries worldwide by Columbia Tristar. The film was further dubbed and released in Hindi as "Aparichit: The Stranger" on 19 May 2006. It is the first film featuring Vikram in the lead to have a theatrical release in Hindi. At a private screening held a day before its Hindi theatrical release, the film received a "warm reception".


title: Anniyan

text: The film received positive reviews from critics with praise directed towards its plot, direction, action sequences, VFX, performances (particularly Vikram), themes and social message.


title: Anniyan

text: Malathi Rangarajan of "The Hindu" said that the film works as it melds an interesting screen line with racy action. She also noted that the story resembled Shankar's "Indian" (1996) a lot while also bearing semblance to his "Gentleman" (1993). She remarked that the story and screenplay deserved to be lauded for its "ingenious sparks in narration" but problems arose with respect to its plausibility. She then declared, " [...] some of the best camera shots, stunts and locations on a mind-boggling scale have been showcased. If you enjoy magnificence in cinema you will like this "Anniyan"." Krishnakumar wrote for Rediff.com that learning from the debacle of "Boys", the director went back to his strength by taking a social theme, spicing it up and serving the perfect commercial fare. He added that in trying to explain multiple personality disorder in the simplest of terms, the director has only succeeded to a certain extent as a majority of viewers who are not that well informed might not even comprehend what is being said. Labelling the film as a "must see", a reviewer at Sify acclaimed that the film holds the viewers riveted with its racy narration, a relevant message backed with technical wizardry, never-seen before colourful song picturisation and particularly the performance of Vikram. Yet, the reviewer criticised that the film was too lengthy and the story too thin on logic.


title: Anniyan

text: Reviewing "Aparichithudu", the Telugu version of the film, "The Hindu" said that it was watchable. Regarding the Hindi version of the film, Raja Sen of Rediff.com derided the pathetic dubbing though saying that it was refreshing and watchable, despite boasting of enough masala to make the viewers sneeze. He concluded his review by saying, "Overall, "Aparichit" is a slickly made, well-paced actioner that works quite well, despite the dub. The film is engaging and crisply scripted, and the action is never too excessive, lightened by jokes and general tomfoolery that never offensively interrupts the actual plot."


title: Anniyan

text: Following the commercial success of the Telugu version "Aparichitudu", which was a runaway hit in Andhra Pradesh, Shankar was felicitated by Sri Venkateswara Social and Cultural Organisation (SVESCO) of Tirupati and was conferred the title 'Darsaka Brahma'. In a conversation with athlete Shiny Wilson, actor Jayaram remarked, ""Anniyan" was a runaway hit in Kerala. But if a Malayalam star had tried out an "Anniyan"-kind of role with a weird hairdo, it would have been a disaster!"


title: Anniyan

text: The film received numerous awards and nominations. The film won National Award in the Special Effects category. "Anniyan" became the fourth film directed by Shankar to receive that award; the other three are "Kadhalan" (1994), "Indian" (1996) and "Jeans" (1998). It also won eight out of the total 15 awards awarded by Filmfare for the best of Tamil cinema.


title: Anniyan

text: By the time the production was nearing completion, the trade sources had estimated the film to cost around 120–150 million; but, as often happens with films directed by Shankar, the budget was overshot. Made at a cost of ₹263.8 million (worth ₹1,414.3 million in 2021 prices), "Anniyan" was touted as the most expensive South Indian film to be ever made during the time of its release.


title: Anniyan

text: IndiaGlitz estimates that the total production cost, excluding the remuneration cost of the cast and technicians, is 90 million. It was the first Tamil film and the first in South India to get institutional finance. For its institutional finance, it procured a sum of 95 million from IDBI Bank. "Anniyan" was insured by United India Insurance for 150 million, thereby making it the first south Indian film to be insured and also the largest insurance cover extended to a south Indian film at that time.


title: Anniyan

text: With the amount of hype the film generated in the media, theatre owners eagerly came forward and offered hefty prices as Minimum Guarantee (MG). In Tamil Nadu, funds amounting to 120 million were gathered as MG and advance. The MG raised through audio rights and movie distribution to theatres in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and overseas fetched a combined sum of 224 million. The film was distributed and released throughout Tamil Nadu by Aascar Films.


title: Anniyan

text: The rights for "Aparichithudu", the Telugu-dubbed version, was bought by a producer for an all-time record price. Meanwhile, the film was sold in Kerala for 13 million, which was again a record for a Tamil film there. The US rights was bought by the distribution house Bharat Creations. With the theatrical rights and pre-release booking, the trade circuit predicted that the film would recover its cost within ten days of its release.


title: Anniyan

text: The advance booking for the film began on 14 June 2005 across Tamil Nadu and received overwhelming response from the audience which the trade circuit felt was "phenomenal". The film took a "historic opening" worldwide and set multiple records at the box office. A day after release, the film was touted as a hit. In its opening weekend (17–19 June), "Anniyan" grossed 5.024 million from only six multiplexes in Chennai and reached #1 position at the Chennai box-office. In Sathyam Cinemas alone, the film grossed 1.4 million, the highest ever three-day opening from a single multiplex in South India.


title: Anniyan

text: A week after release, the film grossed more than 10 million in Chennai, 2.7 million in Sathyam Cinemas, 7.1 million from 10 prints in Salem and netted 4.1 million in Coimbatore which were all box office records. And beyond Tamil Nadu, the film earned the distributors 12.7 million from Nizam in Andhra, 5 million in Karnataka and 1 million from 3 screens in Mumbai. The film got a hundred percent opening and surpassed "Chandramukhi" as the top-grossing Tamil film of the week, a position occupied by the latter since its release on 14 April 2005. IndiaGlitz likened the Vikram-Shankar combo to that of Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara batting together. The trade pundits estimated that V. Ravichandran would get a distributor's share of 80–100 million in its first week from cinemas across Tamil Nadu. A week after its release, the Telugu-dubbed version "Aparichithudu" was declared a hit in Andhra Pradesh. Distributor Karunakara Reddy of Megha Films in Hyderabad quipped, ""Aparichitudu" has taken an opening just like a Telugu superstar film and should collect a distributor's share of Rs. 5–7 crores for the Nizam area alone." In Kerala, "Anniyan" released in 35 screens across the state, receiving a "record opening" for a Tamil film and became the first Tamil film to get a distributors' share of 6.2 million in its first week. A fortnight after its release, the film was labelled a "super hit" in Tamil cinema's half-yearly report compiled by film trade analyst for "The Hindu" Sreedhar Pillai.


title: Anniyan

text: In exactly a six-week theatrical run, "Anniyan" netted 10.5 million with a distributor's share of around 5.2 million. It was an "all India record for collections, the highest share in least number of days from any theatre in India." However, in Tamil Nadu, collections began dropping five weeks after its release and it was estimated that the film would earn a share of 160 million. In September 2005, the film's gross earnings surpassed the 2 million milestone. At the completion of a 50-day run at Sathyam Cinemas, "Anniyan" "recorded the highest 50 days collection for a Tamil film from a single screen in the world" earning 11.29 million.


title: Anniyan

text: "Anniyan" was declared a blockbuster at the close of the year and, together with "Chandramukhi", earned an estimated gross of 1.1 billion worldwide. The film also collected a distributor's share of 20 million. In Andhra Pradesh, "Aparichitudu" was named the biggest hit of 2005. The film did better business than straight Telugu films. It was the highest grosser among all Telugu films released that year. The film's success earned Vikram a big fan-following in Andhra. It also prompted producers in the Telugu film industry, which had hit a rough patch following a spate of box-office failures, to acquire the dubbing rights to Vikram's previous Tamil films and release them in Telugu.


title: Anniyan

text: In Kerala, the film ran for more than 150 days and grossed over 60 million, it became the highest grossing Tamil film in Kerala at that time. In Karnataka too, the film was a "big success" although the exact box-office figures are not known. However, the film's Hindi version "Aparichit" opened to poor reception earning only 21 million across 150 screens and was declared a flop by Box Office India. While acknowledging that the film underperformed at the box-office, Vikram stated that it nevertheless made an impact. He further added that the film got him recognition from people in the remote corners of India as the drama and the action sequences greatly appealed to them. By the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed 570 million in its lifetime.


title: Anniyan

text: In an August 2005 seminar titled "Revisiting psychiatric disorders in Tamil films", where the discussion revolved around the films "Chandramukhi" and "Anniyan", psychiatrist Asokan found many logical faults in both films. While acknowledging that "Anniyan" was a technically better film, he stated that it did not explain some of the medical theories. In another August 2005 seminar conducted to mark the anniversary of the Quit India Movement, where participants were urged to actively fight corruption, the convener T. Hema Kumari referred to the films "Bhaarateeyudu" (the Telugu dubbed version of "Indian") and "Aparichitudu". She noted that while such films which depict a fight against corruption were appreciated, people were reluctant to join movements against such issues.


title: Anniyan

text: Despite the dubbed Hindi version, in April 2021, it was announced that Shankar would direct a Hindi remake with Ranveer Singh reprising Vikram's role. However, in August 2021, it was reported that the remake is stalled due to the differences with producer V. Ravichandran. Ravichandran alleged that the film was getting a remake without his consent and he challenged it.


title: Anniyan

text: During the 20th Vijayawada Book Festival held at Vijayawada in January 2009, "Garuda Puranam", one of the 18 puranas of Hinduism, was a best-seller. Writing for "The Hindu", G.V. Ramana Rao said that the book was made popular following several mentions in the film and sold like "hot cakes". Following the stupendous success of "Aparichitudu" in Andhra Pradesh, the State Transport Corporation of Warangal named a bus Remo, after the character played by Vikram in the film. When stand-up comedian and television anchor Bosskey launched a quirky play titled "Dada" (Don) in October 2005, he named the cast after famous characters in Tamil films. Accordingly, Anniyan (one of Vikram's character in the film), Badshah (Rajinikanth in "Baashha") and Velu Nayakkar (Kamal Haasan's role in "Nayakan") play the central characters of a family of brothers. Similarly, in the 2013 comedy film "Onbadhule Guru", in which the characters were named after popular protagonists of Tamil cinema, a member of the supporting cast was christened Anniyan.


title: Anniyan

text: The characters played by Vikram were spoofed by Vadivelu in the Tamil film "Aaru" (2005); the comedy sequence also features four songs from the film's soundtrack album. "Aparichitudu", the film's Telugu version, was parodied by comedian Venu Madhav in the Telugu films "Chatrapati" (2005) and "Seenugadu Chiranjeevi Fan" (2005). It was also parodied, along with "Chandramukhi", in the film "Rajababu" (2006). In the 2010 film "Thamizh Padam", a full-length parody on stereotypical characters and clichéd sequences in Tamil cinema, the lead actor Shiva recreates the "Anthakoopam" punishment sequence to comic effect, where he tries to force a herd of buffaloes into stampeding a villain but fails in his attempt. Later, the comedy sequence was re-enacted by Allari Naresh in "Sudigadu" (2012), an official remake of "Thamizh Padam". In the 2012 Kannada film "Yaare Koogadali", a remake of the Tamil film "Poraali" (2011), the long and unkempt hair sported by Puneeth Rajkumar was reportedly inspired by the look of Anniyan. The character Remo inspired Sivakarthikeyan's film to have a title of the same name.


title: Ruby O. Fee

text: In 2010, she became known for her leading role as Sophie Kellermann in the television series "Allein gegen die Zeit". She was also hired again for the second season of the series, which was filmed in 2010/2011. In her first feature film, "Womb" (2010), she played the teenage Rebecca (played as an adult by Eva Green). In the feature film "Dandelion – The Cinematic Adventure", which was shot in the summer of 2010 and was released in May 2011, she also received a leading role as Laila.


title: Ruby O. Fee

text: In the summer of 2012, the shooting of a film adaptation of the children's book "The Black Brothers" with Moritz Bleibtreu took place, in which Ruby O. Fee took over the role of Angeletta. She then got the role in the TV movie "Lotta & the Happy Future", in which she played a sick girl who has heartache. She received a lot of praise for the portrayal of the murder suspect Sarah in the "Tatort" episode "Happy Birthday, Sarah". In the summer of 2013, Fee appeared in front of the camera for Detlev Buck's film "Bibi and Tina" as Sophia von Gelenberg.


title: Ruby O. Fee

text: In 2015 she played one of the leading roles in Andreas Dresen's film "As We Were Dreaming", based on the novel of the same name by Clemens Meyer. In 2016 she played the female lead in the two-part historical film "The Secret of the Midwife" (D/CZ). In the German psychological thriller "Zazy", by Matthias X. Oberg, from 2016, she played the female lead. In the 2019 US-German action film "Polar", she played a supporting role alongside Mads Mikkelsen. In "Lindenberg! Mach dein Ding" (2020) she plays Paula aus Sankt Pauli, immortalized in the song "Alles klar auf der Andrea Doria", by Udo Lindenberg.


title: Ruby O. Fee

text: In 2021 she played the role of Korina in the film "Army of Thieves", directed by Matthias Schweighöfer, who also starred in the movie.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, or marriage by habit and repute, is a legal framework where a couple may be considered married without having formally registered their relation as a civil or religious marriage.


title: Common-law marriage

text: The original concept of a "common-law marriage" is one considered valid by both partners, but not formally recorded with a state or religious registry, nor celebrated in a formal civil or religious service. In effect, the act of the couple representing themselves to others as being married and organizing their relation as if they were married, means they are married.


title: Common-law marriage

text: The term "common-law marriage" (or similar) has wider informal use, often to denote relations that are not legally recognized as marriages. It is often used colloquially or by the media to refer to cohabiting couples, regardless of any legal rights or religious implications involved. This can create confusion in regard to the term and to the legal rights of unmarried partners (in addition to the actual status of the couple referred to).


title: Common-law marriage

text: Common-law marriage is a marriage that takes legal effect without the prerequisites of a marriage license or participation in a marriage ceremony. The marriage occurs when two people who are legally capable of being married, and who intend to be married, live together as a married couple and hold themselves out to the world as a married couple.


title: Common-law marriage

text: The term "common-law marriage" is often used incorrectly to describe various types of couple relationships, such as cohabitation (whether or not registered) or other legally formalized relations. Although these interpersonal relationships are often called "common-law marriage", they differ from its original meaning in that they are not legally recognized as "marriages" but are a parallel interpersonal status such as a "domestic partnership", "registered partnership", "conjugal union" or "civil union". Non-marital relationship contracts are not necessarily recognized from one jurisdiction to another.


title: Common-law marriage

text: In Canada, while some provinces may extend to couples in marriage-like relationships many of the rights and responsibilities of a marriage, they are not legally considered married. They may be legally defined as "unmarried spouses" and for many purposes such as taxes and financial claims, and within those contexts treated the same as married spouses.


title: Common-law marriage

text: A 2008 poll in the UK showed that 51% of respondents incorrectly believed that cohabitants had the same rights as married couples.


title: Common-law marriage

text: In Scotland, common-law marriage does not exist, although there was a type of irregular marriage called 'marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute' which could apply to couples in special circumstances until 2006, and was abolished by the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 (irregular marriages established before 4 May 2006 are recognised).


title: Common-law marriage

text: In ancient Greece and Rome, marriages were private agreements between individuals and estates. Community recognition of a marriage was largely what qualified it as a marriage. The state had only limited interests in assessing the legitimacy of marriages. Normally, civil and religious officials took no part in marriage ceremonies and did not keep registries. There were several more or less formal ceremonies to choose from (partly interchangeable, but sometimes with different legal ramifications) as well as informal arrangements. It was relatively common for couples to cohabit with no ceremony; cohabiting for a moderate period of time was sufficient to make it a marriage. Cohabiting for the purpose of marriage carried with it no social stigma.


title: Common-law marriage

text: In medieval Europe, marriage came under the jurisdiction of canon law, which recognized as a valid marriage one in which the parties stated that they took one another as wife and husband, even in absence of any witnesses.


title: Common-law marriage

text: The Catholic Church forbade clandestine marriage at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), which required all marriages to be announced in a church by a priest. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) introduced more specific requirements, ruling that future marriages would be valid only if witnessed by the pastor of the parish or the local ordinary (the bishop of the diocese) or by the delegate of one of said witnesses, the marriage being invalid otherwise, even if witnessed by a Catholic priest. The Tridentine canons did not bind the Protestants or the Eastern Orthodox, but clandestine marriages were impossible for the latter since their validity required the presence of a priest. England abolished clandestine or common-law marriages in the Marriage Act 1753, requiring marriages to be performed by a priest of the Church of England unless the participants in the marriage were Jews or Quakers. The Act applied to Wales but not to Scotland, which retained its own legal system by the Acts of Union 1707. To get around the requirements of the Marriage Act, such as minimum age requirements, couples would go to Gretna Green, in the south of Scotland, or other border villages such as Coldstream, to get married under Scots law. The Marriage Act 1753 also did not apply to Britain's overseas colonies of the time and so common-law marriages continued to be recognized in what are now the United States and Canada.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Marriages "per verba de praesenti", sometimes known as common-law marriages, were an agreement to marry, rather than a marriage.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Australia does not have common law marriage as it is understood under common law. The term used for relationships between any two persons who are not married, but are living in certain domestic circumstances, may vary between states and territories, although the term "de facto relationship" is often used.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Since March 1, 2009, de facto relationships have been recognized in the Family Law Act (Commonwealth), applicable in states that have referred their jurisdiction on de facto couples to the Commonwealth's jurisdiction. In Western Australia, the only state that has not referred its jurisdiction, state legislation is still valid. There is also no federal recognition of de facto relationships existing outside of Australia (see Section 51(xxxvii) of the Australian Constitution), and so this is also a state matter. Regulation of "de facto" relations is a combination of federal and state/territory laws.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Canada does not have the institution of common-law marriage within the meaning of the legal concept of such a marriage under the common-law, although common-law relationships are recognized for certain purposes in Canada. The Parliament of Canada has exclusive legislative authority over marriage and divorce in Canada under section 91(26) of the "Constitution Act, 1867". Marriage is regulated throughout Canada by the "Civil Marriage Act", and violations of the requirements of this act are subject to the "Criminal Code of Canada" ("Offenses Against Conjugal Rights" and "Unlawful Solemnization of Marriage" chapters, articles 290–296), also applicable throughout Canada.


title: Common-law marriage

text: By contrast, the regulation of non-marital relations, which are often referred to as "common-law spouses", falls largely under provincial law. As such, the legal definition and many implications of marriage-like relationships fall under provincial jurisdiction. As family law varies between provinces, there are differences between the provinces regarding the recognition of common-law relationships. Most such regulations deal with relations that are romantic/sexual in nature, but some, such as adult interdependent relationships in Alberta, do not have such a requirement and can apply to platonic relations, including relatives. In addition, the term "common law" appears informally in documents from the federal government. Common-law partners may be eligible for various federal government spousal benefits. Various laws include "common-law status", which automatically takes effect when two people (of any gender) have lived together in a conjugal relationship for a minimum period. In 1999, in its ruling "M. v. H.", the Supreme Court of Canada decided that same-sex partners would also be included in common-law relationships.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Around one-fifth of Canadian couples are in common-law relationships, a three-fold increase from 1981, according to 2016 data from Statistics Canada.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) states, as of 2007, "living common-law" means living with a person in a conjugal relationship without being married and at least one of the following is true:


title: Common-law marriage

text: Canada recognizes unmarried partners under certain circumstances for the purpose of immigration. Citizenship & Immigration Canada states that a common-law partner refers to a person who is living in a conjugal relationship with another person (opposite or same sex), and has done so continuously for a period of at least one year. A conjugal relationship exists when there is a significant degree of commitment between two people. This can be shown with evidence that the couple share the same home, that they support each other financially and emotionally, that they have children together, or that they present themselves in public as a couple. Common-law partners who are unable to live together or appear in public together because of legal restrictions in their home country or who have been separated for reasons beyond their control (for example, civil war or armed conflict) may still qualify and should be included on an application.


title: Common-law marriage

text: The term "common-law marriage" does not appear in British Columbia (BC) law. A distinction is made between being a "spouse" and being "married". Married couples include only those who have engaged in a legal marriage ceremony and have received a marriage licence. "Spouses" include married couples as well as those, of same or opposite gender, who satisfy criteria for being in a "marriage-like relationship" for a time period that depends on the law that is being considered. Hence the meaning of the term "unmarried spouse" in BC depends on the legal context. The criteria for a relationship being accepted as "marriage-like" include cohabitation for at least the specified period, unbroken by excessively long intervals that are unexplained by exigent circumstances. If dispute arises about whether the relationship was "marriage-like", a court would consider a comprehensive set of further criteria including the domestic and financial arrangements, degree and nature of intimacy, and the sense of the relationship presented to friends and families (especially by each spouse to his/her own family). "Mere roommates will never qualify as unmarried spouses. There needs to be some other dimension to the relationship indicative of a commitment between the parties and their shared belief that they are in a special relationship with each other." The criteria do not exclude the existence of a previous marriage to a third person during the period of the "marriage-like relationship" of the unmarried spouses. Hence a person may have more than one spouse at the same time.


title: Common-law marriage

text: In New Brunswick, a couple must live together for three years or have a natural or adopted child together. They cannot have been married to another person during this time.


title: Common-law marriage

text: In Ontario, section 29 of the "Family Law Act" specifically recognizes unmarried spouses in dealing with spousal support issues. The definition is having cohabited continuously for not less than three years or "in a relationship of some permanence" if parents of a child. However, common-law spouses do not have automatic rights under the "Family Law Act" to their spouses' property (section 29 applies only to the support sections of the Act). Thus, common-law partners do not have a statutory right to divide property in a breakup, and must ask courts to look to concepts such as the constructive or resulting trust to divide property in an equitable manner between partners.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Married people may also have a recognized common-law spouse even before being divorced from the first spouse.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Another difference that distinguishes common-law spouses from married partners is that a common-law partner can be compelled to testify against his or her partner in a court of law.


title: Common-law marriage

text: The Civil Code of Quebec has never recognized a common-law partnership as a form of marriage. However, many laws in Quebec explicitly apply to common-law partners (called ) in " unions" (marriages being " unions") as they do to married spouses. Same-sex partners are also recognized as in unions, for the purpose of social benefit laws. However, common-law partners do not have any legal rights between them, such as alimony, family patrimony, compensatory allowance and matrimonial regime. The Quebec Court of Appeal ruled this restriction to be unconstitutional in 2010; but on January 25, 2013 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that common-law couples do not have the same rights as married couples.


title: Common-law marriage

text: A 2002 amendment to the Civil Code recognizes a type of domestic partnership called a civil union that is similar to marriage and is likewise available to same-sex partners. No citizen of Quebec can be recognized under family law to be in both a civilly married state and a within the same time frame. Divorce from one conjugal relationship must occur before another conjugal relationship may occur in family law.


title: Common-law marriage

text: In Saskatchewan, common-law relations are regulated by "The Family Property Act" and "The Family Maintenance Act". Queen's Bench justices have sanctioned common-law relationships as simultaneously existing in family law while one or more of the spouses were also civilly married to others.


title: Common-law marriage

text: § 27 of the historical Jyske Lov, which covered Funen, Jutland and Schleswig in the years 1241–1683, reads:


title: Common-law marriage

text: In the case of "D. Velusamy v D. Patchaiammal" (2010), the Supreme Court of India defined, with reference to the Domestic Violence Act of 2005, "a relationship in the nature of marriage" as "akin to a common law marriage". The Supreme Court declared that the following are required to satisfy the conditions for a common-law marriage or a relationship in the nature of marriage:


title: Common-law marriage

text: There is no specified time for the common-law marriage to actually take effect but needs it to be "significant". The case clarified that there was a difference between "live-in relationships", "a relationship in the nature of marriage", casual relationships and having a "keep". Only "a relationship in the nature of marriage" can afford the rights and protections conferred in the Domestics Violence Act of 2005 and Section 125 of the Criminal Code, which include alimony for the female partner (unless she leaves her partner for no reason, had an affair with another man, or left with a mutual understanding, in which case alimony amounts must be settled mutually too), allowances, shelter and protections for the female partner in case of abuse, right to live in her partner's house and child custody. Furthermore, children born in such relationships will be granted allowances until they reach full age and, provided the person is not a married adult daughter, if the person is of full age and is handicapped. Furthermore, the Hindu Marriage Act stipulates that children born out of wedlock (including to live-in relationships, relationships in the nature of marriage and casual relationships) are treated as equivalent to legitimate children in terms of inheritance. However, the Hindu Marriage Act is only applicable if the children’s parent is Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or Jain.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Ireland does not recognize common-law marriage, but the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 gives some rights to unmarried cohabitants.


title: Common-law marriage

text: In Israel, courts and a few statutes (such as social security which grants death and disability benefits) have recognized an institute of () meaning a couple who are "known in the public" (lit. translation) as living together as husband and wife. Generally speaking the couple needs to satisfy two tests which are: 1) "intimate life similar to married couple, relationship based on same emotions of affection and love, dedication and faithfulness, showing they have chosen to share their fate" (Supreme Court of Israel, judge Zvi Berenson (intimacy test)), and 2) sharing household (economic test). In addition courts usually are more likely to recognize such relationship as marriage for granting benefits if the couple could not get married under the Israeli law.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Israel's common-law status grants Israeli couples virtually the same benefits and privileges as married couples in Israel.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Common-law marriage or partnerships have some limited recognition in Kuwait in the cases of expatriate familial disputes such as maintenance payments and child support dues. Family courts use the law of the male partner or husband's country of nationality to deal with family matters and hence if the male partner comes from a country where partnerships or other similar unions are recognised, then a Kuwaiti court can also consider it. However, intercourse out of marriage is illegal in Kuwait so such recognition can only practically apply in exceptional cases like in cases of illegitimate children born abroad and the parents have since separated abroad but relocated to Kuwait. No recognition is extended to couples where one or both parties are Kuwaiti or to homosexual couples.


title: Common-law marriage

text: The term "common-law marriage" has been used in England and Wales to refer to unmarried, cohabiting heterosexual couples. However, this is merely a social usage. The term does not confer on cohabiting parties any of the rights or obligations enjoyed by spouses or civil partners. Unmarried partners are recognised for certain purposes in legislation: "e.g.," for means-tested benefits. For example, in the Jobseekers Act 1995, "unmarried couple" was defined as a man and woman who are not married to each other but who are living together in the same household as husband and wife other than in prescribed circumstances. But in many areas of the law cohabitants enjoy no special rights. Thus when a cohabiting relationship ends ownership of any assets will be decided by property law. The courts have no discretion to reallocate assets, as occurs on divorce.


title: Common-law marriage

text: It is sometimes mistakenly claimed that before the Marriage Act 1753 cohabiting couples would enjoy the protection of a "common-law marriage". In fact, neither the name nor the concept of "common-law marriage" was known at this time. Far from being treated as if they were married, couples known to be cohabiting risked prosecution by the church courts for fornication.


title: Common-law marriage

text: "Contract marriages" (or more strictly marriages ) could be presumed, before the Marriage Act 1753, to have been undertaken by mutual consent by couples who lived together without undergoing a marriage ceremony. However, they were not understood as having the legal status of a valid marriage until the decision in "Dalrymple" clarified this in 1811. This decision affected the subsequent development of English law due to the fact that the Marriage Act 1753 did not apply overseas. English courts later held that it was possible to marry by a simple exchange of consent in the colonies, although most of the disputed ceremonies involved the ministrations of a priest or other clergyman.


title: Common-law marriage

text: The English courts also upheld marriages by consent in territories not under British control but only if it had been impossible for the parties to marry according to the requirements of the local law. The late 1950s and early 1960s saw a spate of cases arising out of the Second World War, with marriages in prisoner-of-war camps in German-occupied Europe posing a particular problem for judges. (Some British civilians interned by the Japanese during the Second World War were held to be legally married after contracting marriages under circumstances where the formal requirements could not be met.) To this limited extent, English law does recognise what has become known as a "common-law marriage". English legal texts initially used the term to refer exclusively to "American" common-law marriages. Only in the 1960s did the term "common-law marriage" begin to be used in its contemporary sense to denote unmarried, cohabiting heterosexual relationships, and not until the 1970s and 1980s did the term begin to lose its negative connotations. The use of the term is likely to have encouraged cohabiting couples to believe falsely that they enjoyed legal rights. By the end of the 1970s a myth had emerged that marrying made little difference to one's legal rights, and this may have fuelled the subsequent increase in the number of couples living together and having children together outside marriage.


title: Common-law marriage

text: The Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939 provided that the first three forms of irregular marriage could not be formed on or after 1 January 1940. However, any irregular marriages contracted prior to 1940 can still be upheld. This act also allowed the creation of regular civil marriages in Scotland for the first time (the civil registration system started in Scotland on 1 January 1855).


title: Common-law marriage

text: Until this act, the only regular marriage available in Scotland was a religious marriage. Irregular marriages were not socially accepted and many people who decided to contract them did so where they were relatively unknown. In some years up to 60% of the marriages in the Blythswood Registration District of Glasgow were "irregular".


title: Common-law marriage

text: In 2006, "marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute", the last form of irregular marriage that could still be contracted in Scotland, was abolished in the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006. Until that act had come into force, Scotland remained the only European jurisdiction never to have totally abolished the old-style common-law marriage. For this law to apply, the time the couple had lived together continuously had to exceed 20 days.


title: Common-law marriage

text: As in the American jurisdictions that have preserved it, this type of marriage can be difficult to prove. It is not enough for the couple to have lived together for several years, but they must have been generally regarded as husband and wife. Their friends and neighbors, for example, must have known them as Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so (or at least they must have held themselves out to their neighbors and friends as Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so). Also, like American common-law marriages, it is a form of lawful marriage, so that people cannot be common-law spouses, or husband and wife by cohabitation with habit and repute, if one of them was legally married to somebody else when the relationship began.


title: Common-law marriage

text: It is a testament to the influence of American legal thought and English colloquial usage that, in a study conducted by the Scottish Executive in 2000, 57% of Scots surveyed believed that couples who merely live together have a "common-law marriage". In fact, that term is unknown in Scots law, which uses "marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute".


title: Common-law marriage

text: Otherwise, men and women who otherwise behave as husband and wife did "not" have a common-law marriage or a marriage by habit and repute merely because they set up housekeeping together, but they "must" have held themselves out to the world as husband and wife. (In many jurisdictions, they must do so for a certain length of time for the marriage to be valid.) The Scottish Survey is not clear on these points. It notes that "common-law marriage" is not part of Scots law, but it fails to note that "marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute", which is the same thing but in name, "was" part of Scots law until 2006.


title: Common-law marriage

text: In the U.S., most states have abolished common-law marriage by statute. However, common-law marriage can still be contracted in seven states and the District of Columbia. Once they meet the requirements of common-law marriage, couples in those true common-law marriages are considered legally married for all purposes and in all circumstances.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Common-law marriage can still be contracted in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Oklahoma and the District of Columbia.


title: Common-law marriage

text: All U.S. jurisdictions recognize common-law marriages that were validly contracted in the originating jurisdiction, although the extent to which the U.S. Constitution requires interstate marriage recognition has not been fully articulated by the Supreme Court. However, absent legal registration or similar notice of the marriage, the parties to a common law marriage or their eventual heirs may have difficulty proving their relationship to be marriage. Some states provide for registration of an informal or common-law marriage based on the declaration of each of the spouses on a state-issued form.


title: Common-law marriage

text: Due to their colonial past, the islands of the English-speaking Caribbean have statutes concerning common-law marriage similar to those in England. However, in the Caribbean, the term "common-law" marriage is also widely described, by custom as much as by law, to any long term relationship between male and female partners. Such unions are widespread, making up a significant percentage of families, many of which have children and may last for many years. The reasons for people choosing common-law arrangements is debated in sociological literature. Although the acceptance of this type of union varies, men being more inclined to consider them as legitimate than women, they have become an institution.


title: Kevin Connolly (actor)

text: Kevin Connolly (born March 5, 1974) is an American actor and director. He is best known for his role as Eric Murphy in the HBO series "Entourage", and his role as the eldest son Ryan Malloy in the 1990s television sitcom "Unhappily Ever After". Connolly is also a director, having directed many episodes of television as well as the films "Gardener of Eden", "Dear Eleanor", and "Gotti."


title: Kevin Connolly (actor)

text: Connolly was born either in New York City, New York, or in Patchogue, New York, (sources differ) and raised in Medford, New York, on Long Island. His mother, Eileen, is of Irish descent. He has an older brother, Tim, a police detective for Suffolk County, New York police. Connolly graduated from Patchogue-Medford High School in 1992.