title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: At the time of the 1965 war with Pakistan, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri invited the RSS Sarsanghchalak Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar to an All-Party-Meet. RSS was asked to relieve the Delhi Police of their routine duties so they could focus on strategic tasks for the war effort.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: After the declaration of 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence by Indira Gandhi, RSS provided support to the government, by offering its services to maintain law and order in Delhi and its volunteers were the first to donate blood. RSS Swayamsewaks also helped the Indian Army troops to dig trenches, and after the war helped to repatriate the Bangladeshi refugees back to their newly formed country of Bangladesh.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: In 1975 the Indira Gandhi government proclaimed emergency rule in India, thereby suspending fundamental rights and curtailing the freedom of the press. This action was taken after the Supreme Court of India cancelled her election to the Indian Parliament on charges of malpractices in the election. Democratic institutions were suspended and prominent opposition leaders, including Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan, were arrested whilst thousands of people were detained without any charges taken up against them. RSS, which was seen as being close to opposition leaders, and with its large organisational base was seen to have the capability of organising protests against the government, was also banned.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Deoras, the then chief of RSS, wrote letters to Indira Gandhi, promising her to extend the organisation's co-operation in return for the lifting of the ban, asserting that RSS had no connection with the movement in Bihar and that in Gujarat. He tried to persuade Vinoba Bhave to mediate between the RSS and the government and also sought the offices of Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's son. Later, when there was no response, volunteers of the RSS formed underground movements against the Emergency. Literature that was censored in the media was clandestinely published and distributed on a large scale, and funds were collected for the movement. Networks were established between leaders of different political parties in the jail and outside for the co-ordination of the movement. RSS claimed that the movement was "dominated by tens of thousands of RSS cadres, though more and more young recruits are coming". Talking about its objectives, RSS said, "its platform at the moment has only one plank: to bring democracy back to India". The Emergency was lifted in 1977, and as a consequence the ban on the RSS was also lifted.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The Emergency is said to have legitimised the role of RSS in Indian politics, which had not been possible ever since the stain the organisation had acquired following the Mahatma Gandhi's assassination in 1948, thereby 'sowing the seeds' for the Hindutva politics of the following decade.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had been vigilant towards RSS since he had taken charge. When Golwalkar wrote to Nehru asking for the lifting of the ban on RSS after Gandhi's assassination, Nehru replied that the government had proof that RSS activities were 'anti-national' by virtue of being 'communalist'. In his letter to the heads of provincial governments in December 1947, Nehru wrote that "we have a great deal of evidence to show that RSS is an organisation which is in the nature of a private army and which is definitely proceeding on the strictest Nazi lines, even following the techniques of the organisation".


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, said in early January 1948 that the RSS activists were "patriots who love their country". He asked the Congressmen to 'win over' the RSS by love, instead of trying to 'crush' them. He also appealed to the RSS to join the Congress instead of opposing it. Jaffrelot says that this attitude of Patel can be partly explained by the assistance the RSS gave the Indian administration in maintaining public order in September 1947, and that his expression of 'qualified sympathy' towards RSS reflected the long-standing inclination of several Hindu traditionalists in Congress. However, after Gandhi's assassination on 30 January 1948, Patel began to view that the activities of RSS were a danger to public security. In his reply letter to Golwalkar on 11 September 1948 regarding the lifting of ban on RSS, Patel stated that though RSS did service to the Hindu society by helping and protecting the Hindus when in need during partition violence, they also began attacking Muslims with revenge and went against "innocent men, women and children". He said that the speeches of RSS were "full of communal poison", and as a result of that 'poison', he remarked, India had to lose Gandhi, noting that the RSS men had celebrated Gandhi's death. Patel was also apprehensive of the secrecy in the working manner of RSS, and complained that all of its provincial heads were Maratha Brahmins. He criticised the RSS for having its own army inside India, which he said, cannot be permitted as "it was a potential danger to the State". He also remarked: "The members of RSS claimed to be the defenders of Hinduism. But they must understand that Hinduism would not be saved by rowdyism."


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: RSS does not have any formal membership. According to the official website, men and boys can become members by joining the nearest "shakha", which is the basic unit.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Although the RSS claims not to keep membership records, it is estimated to have had 2.5 to 6.0million members in 2001.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The term "shakha" is Hindi for "branch". Most of the organisational work of the RSS is done through the co-ordination of the various "shakhas", or branches. These shakhas are run for one hour in public places. The number of "shakhas" increased from 8500 in 1975 to 11,000 in 1977, and became 20,000 by 1982. In 2004 more than 51,000 shakhas were run throughout India. The number of shakas had fallen by over 10,000 after the fall of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in 2004. However, by mid-2014, the number had again increased to about 40,000 after the return of BJP to power in the same year. This number stood at 51,335 in August 2015.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The shakhas conduct various activities for its volunteers such as physical fitness through yoga, exercises, and games, and activities that encourage civic awareness, social service, community living, and patriotism. Volunteers are trained in first aid and in rescue and rehabilitation operations, and are encouraged to become involved in community development.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Most of the shakhas are located in the Hindi-speaking regions. As of 2016 Delhi had 1,898 shakhas. There are more than 8,000 shakhas in UP, 6,845 shakhas in Kerala, 4,000 in Maharashtra, and around 1,000 in Gujarat. In northeast India, there are more than 1,000 shakhas, including 903 in Assam, 107 in Manipur, 36 in Arunachal, and 4 in Nagaland. In Punjab, there are more than 900 shakhas as of 2016. As of late 2015 there were a total of 1,421 shakhas in Bihar, 4,870 in Rajasthan, 1,252 in Uttarakhand, 2,060 in Tamil Nadu, and 1,492 in West Bengal. There are close to 500 shakhas in Jammu and Kashmir, 130 in Tripura, and 46 in Meghalaya.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: As per the RSS Annual Report of 2019, there were a total of 84,877 shakhas, of which 59,266 are being held daily; 17,229 are weekly shakhas (58,967 in 2018, 57,165 shakhas in 2017, and 56,569 in 2016)


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: In October 2016, the RSS replaced the uniform of khaki shorts its cadre had worn for 91 years with dark brown trousers.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The song "Namastē Sadāvatsale Matrubhoomē" is the anthem or prayer of the RSS, saluting the motherland.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Organisations that are inspired by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's ideology refer to themselves as members of the "Sangh Parivar". In most cases, "pracharaks" (full-time volunteers of the RSS) were deputed to start up and manage these organisations in their initial years.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Although RSS generally endorses the BJP, it has at times refused to do so due to the difference of opinion with the party.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Golwalkar describes the mission of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as the revitalisation of the Indian value system based on universalism and peace and prosperity to all. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the worldview that the whole world is one family, propounded by the ancient thinkers of India, is considered one of the ideologies of the organisation.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: But the immediate focus, the leaders believe, is on the Hindu renaissance, which would build an egalitarian society and a strong India that could propound this philosophy. Hence, the focus is on social reform, economic upliftment of the downtrodden, and the protection of the cultural diversity of the natives in India. The organisation says it aspires to unite all Hindus and build a strong India that can contribute to the welfare of the world. In the words of RSS ideologue and the second head of the RSS, Golwalkar, "in order to be able to contribute our unique knowledge to mankind, in order to be able to live and strive for the unity and welfare of the world, we stand before the world as a self-confident, resurgent and mighty nation".


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The RSS has spoken in support of LGBT rights, stating that the LGBT community fall within the boundaries of forwarding a Hindu nation, and having historically labelled the issue as a "private matter" that should not concern the general public.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: When it came to non-Hindu religions, the view of Golwalkar (who once supported Hitler's creation of a supreme race by suppression of minorities) on minorities was that of extreme intolerance. In a 1998 magazine article, some RSS and BJP members were said to have distanced themselves from Golwalkar's views, though not entirely.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Golwalkar also explains that RSS does not intend to compete in electioneering politics or share power. The movement considers Hindus as inclusive of Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, tribals, untouchables, Veerashaivism, Arya Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission, and other groups as a community, a view similar to the inclusive referencing of the term Hindu in the Indian Constitution Article 25 (2)(b).


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: In spite of the party's hostile rhetoric against their religions, the RSS also has Muslim and Christian members. According to the party's official documents, Indian Muslims and Christians are still descendants of Hindus that happened to be converted to foreign faiths, so as long as they agree with its beliefs they can also be members. They are still required to attend the shakhas, and recite Hindu hymns, even by breaking Ramadhan fasts when possible. The Muslim Rashtriya Manch is considered as a wing of the RSS for Muslim members.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The RSS volunteers participated in the Bhoodan movement organised by Gandhian leader Vinobha Bhave, who had met RSS leader Golwalkar in Meerut in November 1951. Golwalkar had been inspired by the movement that encouraged land reform through voluntary means. He pledged the support of the RSS for this movement. Consequently, many RSS volunteers, led by Nanaji Deshmukh, participated in the movement. But Golwalkar was also critical of the Bhoodan movement on other occasions for being reactionary and for working "merely with a view to counteracting Communism". He believed that the movement should inculcate a faith in the masses that would make them rise above the base appeal of Communism.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The RSS has advocated the training of Dalits and other backward classes as temple high priests (a position traditionally reserved for Caste Brahmins and denied to lower castes). They argue that the social divisiveness of the caste system is responsible for the lack of adherence to Hindu values and traditions, and that reaching out to the lower castes in this manner will be a remedy to the problem. The RSS has also condemned upper-caste Hindus for preventing Dalits from worshipping at temples, saying that "even God will desert the temple in which Dalits cannot enter".


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Jaffrelot says that "there is insufficient data available to carry out a statistical analysis of social origins of the early RSS leaders" but goes on to conclude that, based on some known profiles, most of the RSS founders and its leading organisers, with a few exceptions, were Maharashtrian Brahmins from the middle or lower class and argues that the pervasiveness of the Brahminical ethic in the organisation was probably the main reason why it failed to attract support from the low castes. He argues that the "RSS resorted to instrumentalist techniques of ethnoreligious mobilisation—in which its Brahminism was diluted—to overcome this handicap". However, Anderson and Damle (1987) find that members of all castes have been welcomed into the organisation and are treated as equals.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: During a visit in 1934 to an RSS camp at Wardha accompanied by Mahadev Desai and Mirabehn, Mahatma Gandhi said, "When I visited the RSS Camp, I was very much surprised by your discipline and absence of untouchablity." He personally inquired about this to Swayamsevaks and found that volunteers were living and eating together in the camp without bothering to know each other's castes.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The RSS was instrumental in relief efforts after the 1971 Odisha cyclone, 1977 Andhra Pradesh cyclone and in the 1984 Bhopal disaster. It assisted in relief efforts during the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and helped rebuild villages. Approximately 35,000 RSS members in uniform were engaged in the relief efforts, and many of their critics acknowledged their role. An RSS-affiliated NGO, Seva Bharati, conducted relief operations in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Activities included building shelters for the victims and providing food, clothes, and medical necessities. The RSS assisted relief efforts during the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and the subsequent tsunami. Seva Bharati also adopted 57 children (38 Muslims and 19 Hindus) from militancy affected areas of Jammu and Kashmir to provide them education at least up to Higher Secondary level. They also took care of victims of the Kargil War of 1999.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: During the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, as per the former National Minorities Commission chairman Tarlochan Singh and noted journalist & author Khushwant Singh, RSS activists also protected and helped members of the Sikh community.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: In 2006 RSS participated in relief efforts to provide basic necessities such as food, milk, and potable water to the people of Surat, Gujarat, who were affected by floods in the region. The RSS volunteers carried out relief and rehabilitation work after the floods affected North Karnataka and some districts of the state of Andhra Pradesh. In 2013, following the Uttarakhand floods, RSS volunteers were involved in flood relief work through its offices set up at affected areas.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Backing the 2020 coronavirus lockdown in India, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh provided essential services including masks, soaps and food to many all over India during the lockdown. In 2020, a Muslim woman from Jammu and Kashmir donated all her savings meant for her Hajj pilgrimage, worth 5 lakh, to the RSS-affiliated 'Sewa Bharati' after being "impressed with the welfare work" done by the outfit amid the lockdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The number of Muslim students in the schools run by Vidya Bharati, the educational wing of RSS, has witnessed an increase of approximately 30% during the three years 2017–2020 in Uttar Pradesh.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Two prominent publications of the RSS are "Panchajanya" (Hindi) and Organiser (English). The first magazines published were Rashtra Dharma (Hindi) and Organiser (English). Later in 1948 new publications were launched, "Panchajanya" from Lucknow, "Akashwani" from Jalandhar and "Chetana" from Varanasi. Until 1977 the publications were published by Rashtra Dharma Prakashan the responsibility of which was later taken over by Bharat Prakashan Ltd. The governing board of the publications has been appointing editors for the publications. Prominent leaders like Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee have been the editors of these publications. In 2013, the number of subscriptions to "Panchajanya" was around 60000 and around 15000 for Organiser. Subscriptions have increased substantially after 2014 election of Narendra Modi as the Prime minister. As of 2017 "Panchajanya" had more than 1 lakh subscribers and Organiser had 25000.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Jaffrelot observes that although the RSS with its paramilitary style of functioning and its emphasis on discipline has sometimes been seen by some as "an Indian version of fascism", he argues that "RSS's ideology treats society as an organism with a secular spirit, which is implanted not so much in the race as in a socio-cultural system and which will be regenerated over the course of time by patient work at the grassroots". He writes that "ideology of the RSS did not develop a theory of the state and the race, a crucial element in European nationalisms: Nazism and Fascism" and that the RSS leaders were interested in culture as opposed to racial sameness.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The likening of the Sangh Parivar to fascism by Western critics has also been countered by Jyotirmaya Sharma, who labelled it as an attempt by them to "make sense of the growth of extremist politics and intolerance within their society", and that such "simplistic transference" has done great injustice to knowledge of Hindu nationalist politics.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: RSS has been criticised as an extremist organisation and as a paramilitary group. It has also been criticised when its members have participated in anti-Muslim violence; it has since formed in 1984, a militant wing called the Bajrang Dal. Along with Shiv Sena, the RSS has been involved in riots, often inciting and organising violence against Christians and Muslims. Thus, there is a common consensus among the academia and intellectuals that RSS spreads hatred.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: According to released documents by WikiLeaks, Congress(I) party's general secretary Rahul Gandhi remarked to US Ambassador Timothy Roemer, at a luncheon hosted by Prime Minister of India at his residence in July 2009, that the RSS was a "bigger threat" to India than the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organisation for human rights based in New York, has claimed that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP), the Bajrang Dal, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and the BJP have been party to the Gujarat violence that erupted after the Godhra train burning. Local VHP, BJP, and BD leaders have been named in many police reports filed by eyewitnesses. RSS and VHP claimed that they made appeals to put an end to the violence and that they asked their supporters and volunteer staff to prevent any activity that might disrupt peace.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Christian groups accuse the RSS alongside its close affiliates, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal (BD), and the Hindu Jagaran Sammukhya (HJS), of participation in the 2008 religious violence in Odisha.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: According to the 2009 report of the Liberhan Commission, the Sangh Parivar organised the destruction of the Babri Mosque. The Commission said: "The blame or the credit for the entire temple construction movement at Ayodhya must necessarily be attributed to Sangh Parivar." It also noted that the Sangh Parivar is an "extensive and widespread organic body" that encompasses organisations that address and bring together just about every type of social, professional, and other demographic groupings of individuals. The RSS has denied responsibility and questioned the objectivity of the report. Former RSS chief K. S. Sudarshan alleged that the mosque had been demolished by government men as opposed to the Karsevak volunteers. On the other hand, a government of India white paper dismissed the idea that the demolition was pre-organised.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The RSS was banned after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, when the government of the time considered it a threat to the state. The ban was subsequently lifted in 1993 when no evidence of any unlawful activity was found by the tribunal constituted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Several Sangh Parivar politicians such as Balraj Madhok in the 1960s and 1970s to the BJP leaders like L. K. Advani have complained about the RSS's interference in party politics. Though some former Hindu nationalists believed that Sangh should take part in politics, they failed to draw the RSS, which was intended to be a purely cultural movement, into the political arena until the 1950s. Savarkar tried to convince Hedgewar and later Golwalkar, to tie up with the Hindu Mahasabha, but failed to do so.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Under pressure from other "swayamsevaks", Golwalkar gradually changed his mind after independence under unusual circumstances during the ban on RSS in 1948 after the assassination of Gandhi. After the first wave of arrests of RSS activists at that time, some of its members who had gone underground recommended that their movement be involved in politics, seeing that no political force was present to advocate the cause of RSS in parliament or anywhere else. One such member who significantly suggested this cause was K. R. Malkani, who wrote in 1949:


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Golwalkar approved of Malkani's and others' views regarding the formation of a new party in 1950. Jaffrelot says that the death of Sardar Patel influenced this change since Golwalkar opined that Patel could have transformed the Congress party by emphasising its affinities with Hindu nationalism, while after Patel, Nehru became strong enough to impose his 'anti-communal' line within his party. Accordingly, Golwalkar met Syama Prasad Mukherjee and agreed for endorsing senior "swayamsevaks", who included Deendayal Upadhyaya, Balraj Madhok and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a newly formed political party by Mukherjee. These men, who took their orders from RSS, captured power in the party after Mukherjee's death.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: Balasaheb Deoras, who succeeded Golwalkar as the chief of RSS, got very much involved in politics. In 1965, when he was the general secretary of the RSS, he addressed the annual meeting of Jana Sangh, which is seen as an "unprecedented move" by an RSS dignitary that reflected his strong interest in politics and his will to make the movement play a larger part in the public sphere. Jaffrelot says that he exemplified the specific kind of swayamsevaks known as 'activists', giving expression to his leanings towards political activism by having the RSS support the JP Movement. The importance that RSS began to give to the electoral politics is demonstrated when its units ("shakhas") were made constituency-based in the early 1970s, from which the RSS shakhas began to involve directly in elections, not only of legislatures, but also of trade unions, student and cultural organisations.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: As soon as the RSS men took over the Jana Sangh party, the Hindu traditionalists who previously joined the party because of S. P. Mukherjee were sidelined. The organisation of the party was restructured and all its organisational secretaries, who were the pillars of the party, came from the RSS, both at the district and state level. The party also took the vision of RSS in its mission, where its ultimate objective, in the long run, was the reform of society, but not the conquest of power, since the 'state' was not viewed as a prominent institution. Hence the Jana Sangh initially remained reluctant to join any alliance that was not fully in harmony with its ideology. In 1962, Deendayal Upadhyaya, who was the party's chief, explained this approach by saying that "coalitions were bound to degenerate into a struggle for power by opportunist elements coming together in the interest of expediency". He wanted to build the party as an alternative party to the Congress and saw the elections as an "opportunity to educate the people on political issues and to challenge the right of the Congress to be in power". Jaffrelot says that this indifferent approach of party politics was in accordance with its lack of interest in the 'state' and the wish to make it weaker, or more decentralised. After India's defeat in the 1962 Sino–Indian war, the RSS and other right-wing forces in India were strengthened since the leftist and centrist opinions, sometimes even Nehru himself, could then be blamed for being 'soft' towards China. The RSS and Jana Sangh also took complete advantage of the 1965 war with Pakistan to "deepen suspicion about Muslims", and also en-cashed the growing unpopularity of Congress, particularly in the Hindi-belt, where a left-wing alternative was weak or non-existent. The major themes on the party's agenda during this period were banning cow slaughter, abolishing the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir, and legislating a uniform civil code. Explaining the Jana Sangh's failure to become a major political force despite claiming to represent the national interests of the Hindus, scholar Bruce Desmond Graham states that the party's close initial ties with the Hindi-belt and its preoccupation with the issues of North India such as promotion of Hindi, energetic resistance to Pakistan etc., had become a serious disadvantage to the party in the long run. He also adds that its interpretation of Hinduism was "restrictive and exclusive", arguing that "its doctrines were inspired by an activist version of Hindu nationalism and, indirectly, by the values of Brahmanism rather than the devotional and quietist values of popular Hinduism." Desmond says that, if the Jana Sangh had carefully moderated its Hindu nationalism, it could have been able to well-exploit any strong increase in support for the traditional and nationalist Hindu opinion, and hence to compete on equal terms with the Congress in the northern states. He also remarks that if it had adopted a less harsh attitude towards Pakistan and Muslims, "it would have been much more acceptable to Hindu traditionalists in the central and southern states, where partition had left fewer emotional scars."


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The Jana Sangh started making alliances by entering the anti-Congress coalitions since 1960s. It became part of the 1971 Grand Alliance and finally merged itself with the Janata Party in 1977. The success of Janata Party in 1977 elections made the RSS members central ministers for the first time (Vajpayee, Advani and Brij Lal Verma), and provided the RSS with an opportunity to avail the state and its instruments to further its ends, through the resources of various state governments as well as the central government. However, this merge, which was seen as a dilution of its original doctrine, was viewed by the ex-Jana Sanghis as submersion of their initial identity. Meanwhile, the other components of the Janata Party denounced the allegiance the ex-Jana Sanghis continued to pay to the RSS. This led to a 'dual membership' controversy, regarding the links the former Jana Sangh members were retaining with the RSS, and it led to the split of Janata Party in 1979.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The former Jana Sangh elements formed a new party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in 1980. However, BJP originated more as a successor to the Janata Party and did not return to the beginning stages of the Hindu nationalist identity and Jana Sangh doctrines. The RSS resented this dilution of ideology – the new slogans promoted by the then BJP president Vajpayee like 'Gandhian socialism' and 'positive secularism'. By early 1980s, RSS is said to have established its political strategy of "never keeping all its eggs in one basket". It even decided to support Congress in some states, for instance, to create the Hindu Munnani in Tamil Nadu in the backdrop of the 1981 Meenakshipuram mass conversion to Islam, and to support one of its offshoots, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), to launch an enthno-religious movement on the Ayodhya dispute. BJP did not have much electoral success in its initial years and was able to win only two seats in the 1984 elections. After L. K. Advani replaced Vajpayee as party president in 1986, the BJP also began to rally around the Ayodhya campaign. In 1990, the party organised the "Ram Rath Yatra" to advance this campaign in large-scale. Advani also attacked the then ruling Congress party with the slogans such as 'pseudo-secularism', accusing Congress of misusing secularism for the political appeasement of minorities, and established an explicit and unambiguous path of Hindu revival.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: The 'instrumentalisation' of the Ayodhya issue and the related communal riots which polarised the electorate along religious lines helped the BJP make good progress in the subsequent elections of 1989, 1991 and 1996. However, in the mid-1990s, BJP adopted a more moderate approach to politics in order to make allies. As Jaffrelot remarks, it was because the party realised during then that it would not be in a position to form the government on its own in the near future. In 1998, it built a major coalition, National Democratic Alliance (NDA), in the Lok Sabha and succeeded in the general election in 1998, and was able to succeed again in the mid-term elections of 1999, with Vajpayee as their Prime Ministerial candidate. Though the RSS and other Sangh Parivar components appreciated some of the steps taken by the Vajpayee government, like the testing of a nuclear bomb, they felt disappointed with the government's overall performance. The fact that no solid step was taken towards building the Ram temple in Ayodhya was resented by the VHP. The liberalisation policy of the government faced objection from the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, a trade union controlled by the RSS. Jaffrelot says, RSS and the other Sangh Parivar elements had come to the view that the "BJP leaders had been victims of their thirst for power: they had preferred to compromise to remain in office instead of sticking to their principles."


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: After the end of Vajpayee's tenure in 2004, BJP remained as a major opposition party in the subsequent years; and again in the year 2014, the NDA came to power after BJP gained an overwhelming majority in the 2014 general elections, with Narendra Modi, a former RSS member who previously served as Gujarat's chief minister for three tenures, as their prime ministerial candidate. Modi was able to project himself as a person who could bring about "development", without focus on any specific policies, through the "Gujarat development model" which was frequently used to counter the allegations of communalism. Voter dissatisfaction with the Congress, as well as the support from RSS are also stated as reasons for the BJP's success in the 2014 elections.


title: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

text: In January 2020, the RSS along with other right-wing political parties and religious organisations such as BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and HJV held protests, which allegedly demanded that the statue of Jesus be not installed at Kapala Hills of Kanakapura. The 10 acres of land was originally donated by the government to the Christian community after D. K. Shivakumar, the MLA of Indian National Congress submitted a request to the state government for land donation to the community.


title: William Holden

text: William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film "Stalag 17" (1953) and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for the television film "The Blue Knight" (1973). Holden starred in some of Hollywood's most popular and critically acclaimed films, including "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), "Sabrina" (1954), "Picnic" (1955), "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957), "The Wild Bunch" (1969) and "Network" (1976). He was named one of the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" six times (1954–1958, 1961), and appeared as 25th on the American Film Institute's list of 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema.


title: William Holden

text: Holden was born William Franklin Beedle, Jr., on April 17, 1918, in O'Fallon, Illinois, son of Mary Blanche Beedle (née Ball), a schoolteacher, and her husband William Franklin Beedle, an industrial chemist. He had two younger brothers, Robert Westfield Beedle and Richard Porter Beedle. One of his father's grandmothers, Rebecca Westfield, was born in England, while some of his mother's ancestors settled in Virginia's Lancaster County after emigrating from England in the 17th century. His brother Robert ("Bobbie") became a U.S. Navy fighter pilot and was killed in action in World War II, over New Ireland, a Japanese-occupied island in the South Pacific.


title: William Holden

text: His family moved to South Pasadena when he was three. After graduating from South Pasadena High School, Holden attended Pasadena Junior College, where he became involved in local radio plays.


title: William Holden

text: A version of how he obtained his stage name "Holden" is based on a statement by George Ross of "Billboard": "William Holden, the lad just signed for the coveted lead in "Golden Boy", used to be Bill Beadle. And here is how he obtained his new movie tag. On the Columbia lot is an assistant director and scout named Harold Winston. Not long ago, he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. Winston was one of those who discovered the "Golden Boy" newcomer and who renamed him—in honor of his former spouse!"


title: William Holden

text: Holden's first starring role was in "Golden Boy" (1939), costarring Barbara Stanwyck, in which he played a violinist-turned-boxer. The film was made for Columbia, which negotiated a sharing agreement with Paramount for Holden's services.


title: William Holden

text: Holden was still an unknown actor when he made "Golden Boy", while Stanwyck was already a film star. She liked Holden and went out of her way to help him succeed, devoting her personal time to coaching and encouraging him, which made them into lifelong friends. When she received her Honorary Oscar at the 1982 Academy Award ceremony, Holden had died in an accident just a few months prior. At the end of her acceptance speech, she paid him a personal tribute: "I loved him very much, and I miss him. He always wished that I would get an Oscar. And so tonight, my golden boy, you got your wish".


title: William Holden

text: Next he starred with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart in the Warner Bros. gangster epic "Invisible Stripes" (1939), billed below Raft and above Bogart.


title: William Holden

text: Back at Paramount, he starred with Bonita Granville in "Those Were the Days!" (1940) followed by the role of George Gibbs in the film adaptation of "Our Town" (1940), done for Sol Lesser at United Artists.


title: William Holden

text: Columbia put Holden in a Western with Jean Arthur, "Arizona" (1940), then at Paramount he was in a hugely popular war film, "I Wanted Wings" (1941) with Ray Milland and Veronica Lake.


title: William Holden

text: He did another Western at Columbia, "Texas" (1941) with Glenn Ford, and a musical comedy at Paramount, "The Fleet's In" (1942) with Eddie Bracken, Dorothy Lamour, and Betty Hutton.


title: William Holden

text: He stayed at Paramount for "The Remarkable Andrew" (1942) with Brian Donlevy, then made "Meet the Stewarts" (1943) at Columbia. Paramount reunited Bracken and him in "Young and Willing" (1943).


title: William Holden

text: Holden served as a second and then a first lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force during World War II, where he acted in training films for the First Motion Picture Unit, including "Reconnaissance Pilot" (1943).


title: William Holden

text: Holden's first film back from the services was "Blaze of Noon" (1947), an aviator picture at Paramount directed by John Farrow. He followed it with a romantic comedy, "Dear Ruth" (1947) and he was one of many cameos in "Variety Girl" (1947). RKO borrowed him for "Rachel and the Stranger" (1948) with Robert Mitchum and Loretta Young. Holden starred in the 20th Century Fox film "Apartment for Peggy" (1948). At Columbia, he starred in film noirs, "The Dark Past" (1948), "The Man from Colorado" (1949) and "Father Is a Bachelor" (1950). At Paramount, he did another Western, "Streets of Laredo" (1949). Columbia teamed him with Lucille Ball for "Miss Grant Takes Richmond" (1949), and the sequel to "Dear Ruth", "Dear Wife" (1949).


title: William Holden

text: Holden's career took off again in 1950 when Billy Wilder tapped him to play a down-at-heel screenwriter taken in by a faded silent film actress (Gloria Swanson) in "Sunset Boulevard". Holden earned his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for the role.


title: William Holden

text: Getting the role was a lucky break for Holden, as Montgomery Clift was initially cast but backed out of his contract. Swanson later said, "Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. He was perfection on- and off-screen." And Wilder commented "Bill was a complex guy, a totally honorable friend. He was a genuine star. Every woman was in love with him." Paramount reunited him with Nancy Olson, one of his "Sunset Boulevard" costars, in "Union Station" (1950).


title: William Holden

text: Holden had another good break when he was cast as Judy Holliday's love interest in the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway hit "Born Yesterday" (1950). He made two more films with Olson: "Force of Arms" (1951) at Warner Bros. and "Submarine Command" (1951) at Paramount. Holden did a sports film at Columbia, "Boots Malone" (1952), then returned to Paramount for "The Turning Point" (1952).


title: William Holden

text: Holden was reunited with Wilder in "Stalag 17" (1953), for which Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor. This ushered in the peak years of Holden's stardom. He made a sex comedy with David Niven for Otto Preminger, "The Moon Is Blue" (1953), which was a huge hit, in part due to controversy over its content. At Paramount, he was in a comedy with Ginger Rogers that was not particularly popular, "Forever Female" (1953). A Western at MGM, "Escape from Fort Bravo" (1953) did much better, and the all-star "Executive Suite" (1954) was a notable success.


title: William Holden

text: Holden made a third film with Wilder, "Sabrina" (1954), billed beneath Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Holden and Hepburn became romantically involved during the filming, unbeknownst to Wilder: "People on the set told me later that Bill and Audrey were having an affair, and everybody knew. Well, not everybody! I didn't know." The interactions between Bogart, Hepburn and Holden made shooting less than pleasant, as Bogart had wanted his wife, Lauren Bacall, to play Sabrina. Bogart was not especially friendly toward Hepburn, who had little Hollywood experience, while Holden's reaction was the opposite, wrote biographer Michelangelo Capua. Holden recalls their romance: Their relationship did not last much beyond the completion of the film. Holden, who was at this point dependent on alcohol, said, "I really was in love with Audrey, but she wouldn't marry me." Rumors at the time had it that Hepburn wanted a family, but when Holden told her that he had had a vasectomy and having children was impossible, she moved on. (A few months later, Hepburn met Mel Ferrer, whom she later married and with whom she had a son Sean Hepburn Ferrer.)


title: William Holden

text: He took third billing for "The Country Girl" (1954) with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, directed by George Seaton from a play by Clifford Odets. It was a big hit, as was "The Bridges at Toko-Ri" (1954), a Korean War drama with Kelly.


title: William Holden

text: In 1954, Holden was featured on the cover of "Life". On February 7, 1955, Holden appeared as a guest star on "I Love Lucy" as himself. The golden run at the box office continued with "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" (1955), from a best-selling novel, with Jennifer Jones, and "Picnic" (1955), as a drifter, in an adaptation of the William Inge play with Kim Novak. "Picnic" was his last film under the contract with Columbia.


title: William Holden

text: A second film with Seaton did not do as well, "The Proud and Profane" (1956), where Holden played the role with a moustache. Neither did "Toward the Unknown" (1957), the one film Holden produced himself.


title: William Holden

text: Holden had his most widely recognized role as "Commander" Shears in David Lean's "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) with Alec Guinness, a huge commercial success. His deal was considered one of the best ever for an actor at the time, with him receiving 10% of the gross, which earned him over $2.5 million, however, Holden stipulated that he should only receive a maximum of $50,000 per year from the film.


title: William Holden

text: He made another war film for a British director, "The Key" (1958) with Trevor Howard and Sophia Loren for director Carol Reed. He played an American Civil War military surgeon in John Ford's "The Horse Soldiers" (1959) opposite John Wayne, which was a box-office disappointment. Columbia would not meet Holden's asking price of $750,000 and 10% of the gross for "The Guns of Navarone" (1961); the amount of money Holden asked exceeded the combined salaries of stars Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn.


title: William Holden

text: Holden had another hit with "The World of Suzie Wong " (1960) with Nancy Kwan, which was shot in Hong Kong. Less popular was "Satan Never Sleeps" (1961), the last film of Clifton Webb and Leo McCarey; "The Counterfeit Traitor" (1962), his third film with Seaton; or "The Lion" (1962), with Trevor Howard and Capucine. The latter was shot in Africa and sparked Holden's fascination with the continent that was to last for the rest of his life.


title: William Holden

text: Holden's films continued to struggle at the box office, however: "Paris When It Sizzles" (1964) with Hepburn was shot in 1962 but given a much delayed release, "The 7th Dawn" (1964) with Capucine and Susannah York, a romantic adventure set during the Malayan Emergency produced by Charles K. Feldman, "Alvarez Kelly" (1966), a Western, and "The Devil's Brigade" (1968). He was also one of many stars in Feldman's "Casino Royale" (1967).


title: William Holden

text: In 1969, Holden made a comeback when he starred in director Sam Peckinpah's graphically violent Western "The Wild Bunch", winning much acclaim. Also in 1969, Holden starred in director Terence Young's family film "L'Arbre de Noël", co-starring Italian actress Virna Lisi and French actor Bourvil, based on the novel of the same name by Michel Bataille. This film was originally released in the United States as "The Christmas Tree" and on home video as "When Wolves Cry." Holden made a Western with Ryan O'Neal and Blake Edwards, "Wild Rovers" (1971). It was not particularly successful. Neither was "The Revengers" (1972), another Western.


title: William Holden

text: For television roles in 1974, Holden won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his portrayal of a cynical, tough veteran LAPD street cop in the television film "The Blue Knight", based upon the best-selling Joseph Wambaugh novel of the same name.


title: William Holden

text: In 1973, Holden starred with Kay Lenz in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood called "Breezy", which was considered a box-office flop. Also in 1974, Holden starred with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the critically acclaimed disaster film "The Towering Inferno", which became a box-office smash and one of the highest-grossing films of Holden's career.


title: William Holden

text: Two years later, he was praised for his Oscar-nominated leading performance in Sidney Lumet's classic "Network" (1976), an examination of the media written by Paddy Chayefsky, playing an older version of the character type for which he had become iconic in the 1950s, only now more jaded and aware of his own mortality. Around this time he also appeared in "21 Hours at Munich" (1976).


title: William Holden

text: Holden made a fourth and final film for Wilder with "Fedora" (1978). He followed it with "" (1978) and had a cameo in "Escape to Athena" (1978), which co-starred his real-life love interest Stefanie Powers. Holden had a supporting role in "Ashanti" (1979) and was third-billed in another disaster film, "When Time Ran Out..." (1980), which was a flop. Holden starred in "The Earthling", as a loner dying of cancer at the Australian outback and accompanying an orphan boy (Ricky Schroder). After his final film "S.O.B.", Holden declined to star in Jason Miller's film "That Championship Season".


title: William Holden

text: Holden was best man at the wedding of his friend Ronald Reagan to actress Nancy Davis in 1952. Although a registered Republican, he never involved himself in politics.


title: William Holden

text: While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter.


title: William Holden

text: Holden maintained a home in Switzerland and also spent much of his time working for wildlife conservation as a managing partner in an animal preserve in Africa. His Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki (founded 1959) was popular with the international jet set. On a trip to Africa, he fell in love with the wildlife and became increasingly concerned with the animal species that were beginning to decrease in population. With the help of his partners, he created the Mount Kenya Game Ranch and inspired the creation of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation.


title: William Holden

text: Holden was married to actress Brenda Marshall from 1941 until their divorce in 1971. They had two sons, Peter and Scott.


title: William Holden

text: Holden met French actress Capucine in the early 1960s. The two starred in the films "The Lion" (1962) and "The 7th Dawn" (1964). They reportedly began a two-year affair, which is alleged to have ended due to Holden's alcoholism. Capucine and Holden remained friends until his death in 1981.


title: William Holden

text: In 1972, Holden began a nine-year relationship with actress Stefanie Powers and sparked her interest in animal welfare. After his death, Powers set up the William Holden Wildlife Foundation at Holden's Mount Kenya Game Ranch.


title: William Holden

text: According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's autopsy report, Holden bled to death in his apartment in Santa Monica, California, on November 12, 1981, after lacerating his forehead from slipping on a rug while intoxicated and hitting a bedside table. Forensic evidence recovered at the scene suggested that he was conscious for at least half an hour after the fall. His body was found four days later. Rumors existed that he was suffering from lung cancer, which Holden had denied at a 1980 press conference. His death certificate makes no mention of cancer. He dictated in his will that the Neptune Society cremate him and scatter his ashes in the Pacific Ocean. In accordance with his wishes, no funeral or memorial services were conducted.


title: William Holden

text: President Ronald Reagan released a statement: "I have a great feeling of grief. We were close friends for many years. What do you say about a longtime friend – a sense of personal loss, a fine man. Our friendship never waned."


title: William Holden

text: For his contribution to the film industry, Holden has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1651 Vine Street. He also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.


title: William Holden

text: His death was noted by singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega, whose 1987 song "Tom's Diner", about a sequence of events one morning in 1981, included a mention of reading a newspaper article about "an actor who had died while he was drinking". Vega subsequently confirmed that this was a reference to Holden.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: The Little Things is a 2021 American neo-noir psychological crime thriller film directed, written, and co-produced by John Lee Hancock and co-produced by Mark Johnson. Set in early 1990s Los Angeles, the film follows two detectives (Denzel Washington and Rami Malek) who investigate a string of murders, which lead them to a strange loner who may be the culprit (Jared Leto).


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: The film initially began development in 1993, when Hancock wrote the original draft of the screenplay, with various names attached to direct or act, while it languished in development hell. The project was revitalized in 2019, with announcements that Hancock would direct, with Malek, Leto and Washington to portray the main characters. Principal photography began in Los Angeles on September 2, 2019, and wrapped in December 2019.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: "The Little Things" was released in the United States on January 29, 2021 by Warner Bros. Pictures, both theatrically and, for one month, simultaneously on the HBO Max streaming service. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the cast, but criticism towards the screenplay. For his performance, Leto received Best Supporting Actor nominations at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: One night in 1990, a girl drives on a highway, stalked by a motorist. After stopping at an abandoned gas station, she catches the attention of a passing truck driver and escapes her pursuer.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: Some time later in Bakersfield, Kern County deputy sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon is sent to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to collect evidence pertaining to a recent murder. Deacon, a former L.A. Sheriff's detective, accompanies recently appointed lead detective Jimmy Baxter to the scene of a new murder in L.A. Deacon notices similarities between the M.O. of the killing and the M.O. of an old serial murder case he was unable to solve.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: That night, a woman named Ronda Rathbun is followed by a car while jogging and is reported missing the following morning. Baxter learns from the precinct's captain Farris that Deacon got divorced and suffered a heart attack due to his obsession with the unsolved case. Baxter is advised not to involve Deacon any further but Deacon takes vacation leave to assist in solving Baxter's case.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: The next night, the police discover the body of another victim washed up beneath a bridge. Baxter learns the M.O. is consistent with that of the earlier murder and others: the victims were all sex workers who were stabbed to death. Deacon begins investigating Albert Sparma, a suspect working at a repair store in proximity to the murders. Deacon tails Sparma but is thwarted, so he takes Sparma in for questioning. While under interrogation, Sparma taunts the detectives and is released after provoking Deacon into an angry outburst. The young woman pursued in the desert is interviewed but has seen Sparma in handcuffs at the police station which compromises her eligibility as an objective witness to identify him as a suspect.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: The FBI will take charge of the investigation within the week, giving Deacon and Baxter less time to resolve it. Farris informs Baxter that eight years prior, Sparma confessed to a murder which he couldn't possibly have committed and is thus an unlikely suspect. Sparma's fingerprint is similar to the killer's but not a definitive match. Baxter and Deacon go to Sparma's apartment and conduct an illegal search but find nothing incriminating. As Deacon searches the apartment, his portable police scanner goes off and he narrowly escapes from Sparma's home after Sparma calls in an "officer down" report at that address. Police arrive and Deacon escapes while Baxter sees Sparma watching the ordeal.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: While surveilling Sparma, Baxter corners the suspect alone and demands to know Rathbun's location. Sparma offers to drive him to where he supposedly hid Rathbun's body. Baxter cautiously agrees while Deacon secretly follows. Sparma takes Baxter to a remote area in the desert and has him dig several holes before telling Baxter that he never killed anyone. Skeptical, Baxter continues digging. Sparma begins to taunt him until Baxter snaps and strikes him in the face with the shovel, killing him. As Deacon arrives, a flashback reveals that he accidentally shot the one survivor of his last murder case and that Farris and Dunigan, the coroner, helped cover it up. Deacon instructs Baxter to bury Sparma in the desert. Deacon spends the night collecting everything in Sparma's apartment and disposing of his vehicle. Then he returns to the desert the following morning to find that Baxter has not buried Sparma but is instead still searching for the victim, desperate to believe Sparma is the killer. Deacon (whose waking dreams are haunted by the earlier victims) advises Baxter to forget about the case or it will haunt him for life.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: Later, at his home, Baxter receives an envelope sent by Deacon, containing a red barrette like the one Ronda Rathbun was wearing when she was abducted. Back in Kern County, Deacon burns everything he collected in the apartment, along with a brand new pack of barrettes that is missing the red one. The film ends as he walks away.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: In addition, the current victims are portrayed by Sofia Vassilieva as the narrowly escaping Tina Salvatore, and Maya Kazan as Rhonda Rathbun, while the earlier victimsseen in photos and haunting the waking dreams of Deaconare Anna McKitrick as Mary Roberts (whom Deacon had accidentally shot), Sheila Houlahan as Paige Callahan, and Ebony N. Mayo as Tamara Ewing.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: The first draft was written by Hancock in 1993 for Steven Spielberg to direct, but Spielberg passed because he felt the story was too dark. Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty, and Danny DeVito were all separately attached to direct before Hancock decided to helm his own screenplay. Hancock said actor Brandon Lee, who died that year, wanted a role in the film after reading the script.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: In March 2019, Denzel Washington signed on to star in the film. In May, Rami Malek joined the cast. In August, Jared Leto entered into talks for the role of the suspected serial killer, Albert Sparma. Natalie Morales, Joris Jarsky, Sheila Houlahan and Sofia Vassilieva were cast in September, with Michael Hyatt, Kerry O'Malley, Jason James Richter, Isabel Arraiza and John Harlan Kim joining the cast of the film in October. In November, Chris Bauer was also added.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: Principal photography began on September 2, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. Filming wrapped in December 2019.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: The film was theatrically released in the United States on January 29, 2021 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It also had a simultaneous release on the HBO Max streaming service for 31 days, as part of Warner Bros.' plan for all of its 2021 films. It was the most-watched item on the platform in its debut weekend, with Samba TV reporting that 1.4 million households streamed the film over its opening weekend. By the end of its first month, the film had been watched in over 3 million U.S. households.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: The film was released on Premium VOD on March 19, 2021. It was released by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on digital on April 20, 2021. The film received a Blu-ray and DVD release on May 4, 2021, in the United States. The film was re-added to HBO Max on June 17, 2021.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: "The Little Things" grossed $15.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $15.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $31 million.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: The film was released on the same day as the limited release of "Nomadland" and was projected to gross around $2.5 million in its opening weekend. It ended up debuting to $4.8 million from 2,171 theaters, topping the box office; 55% of the audience was male, while 80% were over the age of 25. Internationally, the film grossed $2.8 million from 18 markets for a worldwide start of $7.6 million. The film remained atop the box office both domestically and abroad in its second weekend, with $2.1 million and $1.4 million, respectively. The film made $2.4 million over its third weekend, the four-day President's Day slate, and was dethroned by holdover "", then made $1.2 million in its fourth weekend.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 44% of 264 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "An exceptionally well-cast throwback thriller, "The Little Things" will feel deeply familiar to genre fans -- for better and for worse." On Metacritic, it holds a weighted average score of 54 out of 100 based on 48 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale, and PostTrak reported 67% of filmgoers gave the film a positive score, with 40% saying they would definitely recommend it.


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a grade of B and compared it to "Seven", writing, ""The Little Things" is pulpy and ridiculous and requires some major suspension of disbelief, but — if you didn't know any better — you might even say it's beautiful." David Rooney of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "If the director's generally taut original screenplay settles on an ending too cryptic to be fully satisfying, the performances of Denzel Washington and Rami Malek as cops from the old school and the new who end up having more in common than they anticipated supply enough glue to hold everything together. Add in Jared Leto as the taunting weirdo who becomes their prime suspect in a series of brutal murders, and you have a suspenseful crime thriller with a dark allure."


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: Writing for "The Globe and Mail", Barry Hertz gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, explaining, "Hancock keeps the action moving briskly and with little tonal confusion, highlighting just what a polished studio-favoured professional can do when given gobs of money and zero intellectual-property obligations. And his trio of leading men are all given ample space to play to their strengths." Benjamin Lee of "The Guardian" gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, specifying, "at a time when even small-screen procedurals have perma-frowned detectives who spend more time haunted by their past than actually solving crimes in the present, it all feels a little too familiar and a little too minor." Writing for "RogerEbert.com", Brian Tallerico gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, and said, "It feels like Hancock is trying to tell a very "True Detective" story—one about how a case can pull the people investigating it apart from the inside in a way that breaks them forever—but he can't figure out how to shape that into an intriguing mystery simultaneously."


title: The Little Things (2021 film)

text: Nick Schager of "The Daily Beast" wrote, "The ghost of "Seven" lives on with "The Little Things", as does Denzel Washington's search for the type of great serial killer thriller he missed out on when he turned down the lead role in David Fincher's 1995 genre classic. John Lee Hancock's film [...] is deeply indebted in both style and plot particulars to that predecessor, although unfortunately for it—and its headliner—its modest suspense is largely offset by the fact that there's nothing substantial or especially original lurking beneath its eerie exterior." Some critics have speculated on Sparma's guilt and hinted at a sequel.


title: The Mist (film)

text: The Mist (also known as Stephen King's The Mist) is a 2007 American science-fiction horror film based on the 1980 novella "The Mist" by Stephen King. The film was written and directed by Frank Darabont. Darabont had been interested in adapting "The Mist" for the big screen since the 1980s. The film features an ensemble cast, including Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Nathan Gamble, Andre Braugher, Sam Witwer, Toby Jones, Frances Sternhagen, Buck Taylor, Robert Treveiler, William Sadler, Alexa Davalos, David Jensen, Chris Owen, Andy Stahl, and future "The Walking Dead" stars Jeffrey DeMunn, Laurie Holden, Melissa McBride, and Juan Gabriel Pareja.


title: The Mist (film)

text: The director revised the ending of the film to be darker than the novella's ending, a change to which King was amenable. Darabont also sought unique creature designs to differentiate them from his creatures in past films. Although a monster movie, the central theme explores what ordinary people are driven to do under extraordinary circumstances. The plot revolves around members of the small town of Bridgton, Maine, who after a severe thunderstorm causes the power to go out the night before, meet in a supermarket to pick up supplies. While they struggle to survive, an unnatural mist envelops the town and conceals vicious, Lovecraftian monsters as extreme tensions rise among the survivors.


title: The Mist (film)

text: Filming of "The Mist" began in Shreveport, Louisiana in February 2007. The film was released in the United States and Canada on November 21, 2007; it performed well at the box office and received positive reviews.


title: The Mist (film)

text: Darabont has since revealed that he had "always had it in mind to shoot "The Mist" in black and white", a decision inspired by such films as "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) and the pre-color work of Ray Harryhausen. While the film's theatrical release was in color, the director has described the black-and-white print (released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2008) as his "preferred version."


title: The Mist (film)

text: A severe thunderstorm strikes Bridgton, Maine, sending a tree through into the lakeside home of artist David Drayton, his wife Stephanie, and their eight-year-old son Billy. While surveying the damage the next morning, they notice a thick mist advancing over the lake. David and Billy leave for the town with their neighbor Brent Norton to buy supplies.


title: The Mist (film)

text: From inside the supermarket, they watch police cars speed down the street. A terrified local, Dan Miller, runs into the store and warns of a danger lurking in the mist. As a civil alert siren sounds, store managers Ollie Weeks and Bud Brown close off the supermarket, and the mist envelops the store. Against David's advice, bagger Norm starts to go outside to fix the store's emergency generator, but he is grabbed by a tentacled creature and dragged into the mist. David and Ollie direct the customers to barricade the storefront windows, but one woman leaves to go home to her children. Mrs. Carmody, a religious woman, begins preaching about an impending Armageddon, while Brent leaves the store to seek outside help.


title: The Mist (film)

text: David forms connections with several people in the store, including Amanda Dunfrey and Irene Reppler, two teachers who came into conflict with Carmody over her religious take on the ongoing disaster. Amanda carries a revolver in her purse and gives it to Ollie, who is a former regional shooting champion. As night falls, enormous flying insects, attracted to the lights, swarm to the store windows and are preyed on by pterodactyl-like creatures. One of the predators smashes a window, allowing both species inside. In the ensuing panic, two people are killed while another receives fatal burns while attempting to incinerate the insects. Meanwhile, Carmody is miraculously spared from an insect, which convinces her to proselytize more fervently and gain followers among the survivors.


title: The Mist (film)

text: A small group led by David goes to the neighboring pharmacy in search of medical supplies but is attacked by giant spiders that kill two men, forcing them to retreat. Carmody, who had opposed the expedition on the grounds that it would waste more lives, uses this failure to increase her influence by offering protection from divine wrath to new converts.


title: The Mist (film)

text: The next day, following the suicides of two soldiers from the local military base, a third soldier, Jessup, reveals that a government project to discover other dimensions was underway at the base and that scientists accidentally opened a doorway into the creatures' habitat. Believing that the monsters would not attack the store as long as they are fed, Carmody's followers offer Jessup as a sacrifice and expel him from the supermarket. Outside, he is immediately devoured by a giant praying mantis-like creature.


title: The Mist (film)

text: As David and his group prepare to leave the store the next morning, they are stopped by Carmody. Billy has been chosen by her group to be delivered as the next sacrifice to appease the monsters. As the crowd descends on Amanda and Billy, Ollie shoots and kills Carmody. The traumatized survivors then allow the group to leave. As the group makes its way through the parking lot, Ollie and two others are killed by the spider-creatures from the pharmacy, and Bud runs back to the store. David, Billy, Dan, Amanda, and Irene reach David's car and leave.


title: The Mist (film)

text: Driving through the mist, David finds his home destroyed and Stephanie dead. Devastated, he drives away from town, passing a colossal six-legged beast and eventually running out of gas. With no means of escaping the mist, the adults decide to end their lives. Aiding their suicide, David shoots Billy and the other three survivors with his four remaining bullets before leaving the car to be taken by the creatures. The mist suddenly dissipates, revealing the vanguard of a U.S. Army armored column beginning the process of exterminating the creatures and restoring order. David, seeing that the Army has also rescued survivors, including the woman who left to get to her children, realizes that he killed his son and fellow survivors as they were just moments away from rescue. He drops to his knees, screaming in despair.


title: The Mist (film)

text: Director Frank Darabont first read Stephen King's 1980 novella "The Mist" in the "Dark Forces" anthology, and originally expressed interest in directing a film adaptation for his directing debut. He instead filmed "The Shawshank Redemption", also based on another King novella. In October 1994, after completing "The Shawshank Redemption", Darabont reiterated his interest in filming "The Mist". Darabont did not immediately follow through, instead directing the 1999 film adaptation of Stephen King's "The Green Mile". Darabont eventually set up a first-look deal for "The Mist" with Paramount Pictures, having been entrusted feature-film rights by Stephen King. By December 2004, Darabont said that he had begun writing an adapted screenplay for "The Mist", and by October 2006, the project moved from Paramount to Dimension Films, with Darabont attached to direct and actor Thomas Jane in negotiations to join the cast.


title: The Mist (film)

text: Director Darabont chose to film "The Mist" after filming the "straighter dramas" "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile" because he "wanted to make a very direct, muscular kind of film". Darabont conceived of a new ending in translating the novella for the big screen. Author King praised Darabont's new ending, describing it as one that would be unsettling for studios. King said, "The ending is such a jolt—wham! It's frightening. But people who go to see a horror movie don't necessarily want to be sent out with a Pollyanna ending."


title: The Mist (film)

text: Darabont described "The Mist" as quaint in its elements of monsters and fear of the unknown compared to the contemporary popularity of films with torture porn. The director saw "The Mist" as a throwback to Paddy Chayefsky and William Shakespeare, explaining, "It's people at each other." He highlighted the element of fear in the film in how it compelled people to behave differently. Darabont said, "How primitive do people get? It's "Lord of the Flies" that happens to have some cool monsters in it." He also drew parallels to "The Twilight Zone" episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" and the 1944 film "Lifeboat".


title: The Mist (film)

text: In the novella, the character David Drayton—who is married—has a sexual encounter with Amanda Dumfries, who is also married. Darabont did not want to attempt conveying on screen the protagonist being involved in an extramarital affair. The characters in the film, portrayed by Thomas Jane and Laurie Holden, instead share a more emotional relationship. Jane explained, "We kind of form a little family, sort of surrogate family where my son and I'm a father and she becomes the mother to the son. We become a little unit as we're trying to get through this nightmare together." Holden compared the nightmare to what refugees experienced at the Louisiana Superdome during Hurricane Katrina.


title: The Mist (film)

text: While the origin of the mist in the original novella is never explained in great detail, the movie features a soldier explaining how the Arrowhead Project experimented with opening portals to other worlds. Frank Darabont wrote, but did not film, an opening scene in a draft dated August 5, 2005, in which the thunderstorm causes a malfunction at the Arrowhead Project's lab that allows the portal to another dimension to stay open too long.


title: The Mist (film)

text: In December 2006, Jane finalized negotiations with the studio to join the cast. In January 2007, actors Andre Braugher and Laurie Holden joined Jane for the cast of "The Mist". Production began the following February at StageWorks of Louisiana, a sound stage and film production facility in Shreveport, Louisiana. Marcia Gay Harden and Toby Jones joined the cast later in the month.


title: The Mist (film)

text: William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Brian Libby, each of whom appeared in Darabont's previous Stephen King adaptations "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile", were cast in supporting roles. Sadler had previously played Jane's role, David Drayton, in a 1986 audiobook version of ""The Mist"". Darabont wanted to cast King in the supporting role that eventually went to Brian Libby, an offer that King turned down because he did not want to travel to film the part"."


title: The Mist (film)

text: Darabont sought to pursue "a more fluid, ragged documentary kind of direction" with "The Mist", so he contacted the camera crew from the television series "The Shield", after having directed one episode, to use their style in the film. Darabont attempted to film "The Mist" digitally but found that it "wound up looking too beautiful". He instead chose to film with 400 ASA from Fujifilm, which gave footage a grainy effect.


title: The Mist (film)

text: In the opening shot, David is seen finishing a painting based on King's "Dark Tower" series, which was painted by film poster designer Drew Struzan. Darabont also included reproductions of Struzan's posters and illustrations for "The Shawshank Redemption", "The Green Mile", John Carpenter's "The Thing", and Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth". Struzan went on to produce a poster for "The Mist", but this image was not used in the film's marketing campaign.


title: The Mist (film)

text: Darabont collaborated with the production designer to create a mix of eras to avoid appearing as a period piece, but also not looking so contemporary. Cell phones were used by characters in "The Mist", but the military police in the film did not dress in modern attire. While an MP drives an old Jeep instead of a Humvee, other cars seen in the film are modern models. The city police cars in the beginning of the film are a 1987 Chevrolet Caprice and a 1988 Ford LTD Crown Victoria, cars that were standard police vehicles in the late 1980s, but have not been used in force since the late 1990s.


title: The Mist (film)

text: Over 100 extras from Shreveport, Louisiana, were used in "The Mist". Unlike conventional application of extras in the background of a film, 60 extras were interwoven with the film's ensemble cast. Additional elements giving the film a local flavor include the prominence of local Louisiana brands such as Zapp's potato chips. Exterior shots of the house at the beginning were in Shreveport. Exterior shots of the supermarket were in Vivian, Louisiana. Shields on the passing firetrucks early in the film identify them as part of the Caddo Parish fire department.


title: The Mist (film)

text: Darabont chose to use music to minimal effect in "The Mist" to capture the "heavier feel" of the darker ending he had written to replace the one from the novella. The director explained, "Sometimes movie music feels false. I've always felt that silent can be scarier than loud, a whisper more frightening than a bang, and we wanted to create a balance. We kept music to a minimum to keep that "vérité", documentary feel." Darabont chose to overlay the song "The Host of Seraphim" by the band Dead Can Dance, a spiritual piece characterized by wailing and chanting. As a fan of Dead Can Dance, Darabont thought that the song played "as a requiem mass for the human race." The original score was composed by Academy Award-nominated composer Mark Isham.


title: The Mist (film)

text: Darabont hired artists Jordu Schell and Bernie Wrightson to assist in designing the creatures for the film. Greg Nicotero worked on the film's creature design and make-up effects, while Everett Burrell served as the visual effects supervisor. Nicotero initially sketched out ideas for creature design when Darabont originally expressed interest in filming "The Mist" in the 1980s. When the project was greenlit, Nicotero, Burrell, and Darabont collaborated on the creature design at round-table meetings at CaféFX. The studio for visual effects had been recommended to Darabont by Guillermo del Toro after Darabont asked the director who created the visual effects for "Pan's Labyrinth".


title: The Mist (film)

text: Because the creatures were described in only a few sentences in the novella, Darabont sought to create new designs, but specifically designs which felt unique. Nicotero, who was versed in film and genre history, reviewed past creature designs to avoid duplicating earlier screen monsters. When the designs were completed, Nicotero and Burrell educated the cast on the appearance of the creatures by showing them puppets and the function of their eyes and mouths. The puppet demonstrations served as reference points for the cast, who had to respond to motion-capture dots during filming.


title: The Mist (film)

text: "The Mist" was screened at the film festival ShowEast on October 18, 2007, at which Darabont received the Kodak Award for Excellence in Filmmaking for his previous works "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile".


title: The Mist (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 147 reviews, with an average rating of 6.60/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Frank Darabont's impressive camerawork and politically incisive script make "The Mist" a truly frightening experience." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 58 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a "C" on scale of A to F.


title: The Mist (film)

text: James Berardinelli wrote of the film, ""The Mist" is what a horror film "should" be—dark, tense, and punctuated by just enough gore to keep the viewer's flinch reflex intact. ... Finally, after a long list of failures, someone has done justice in bringing one of King's horror stories to the screen. Though definitely not the feel-good movie of the season, this is a must-see for anyone who loves the genre and doesn't demand 'torture porn' from horror."


title: The Mist (film)

text: Michael Phillips of the "Chicago Tribune" praised the film: "Good and creepy, The Mist comes from a Stephen King novella and is more the shape, size and quality of the recent 1408, likewise taken from a King story, than anything in the persistently fashionable charnel house inhabited by the "Saw" and "Hostel" franchises.


title: The Mist (film)

text: "Entertainment Weekly's" Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote "There's a grim modern parable to be read into the dangerous effects of the gospel-preaching local crazy lady Mrs. Carmody (brilliantly played by a hellfire Marcia Gay Harden) on a congregation of the fearful."


title: The Mist (film)

text: Tom Ambrose of "Empire" said the film was "criminally overlooked" and "one of the best horror movies of the last few years."


title: The Mist (film)

text: Roger Ebert wrote a mixed review, giving it 2 stars out of 4: "If you have seen ads or trailers suggesting that horrible things pounce on people, and they make you think you want to see this movie, you will be correct. It is a competently made Horrible Things Pouncing on People movie. If you think Frank Darabont has equaled the "Shawshank" and "Green Mile" track record, you will be sadly mistaken." Justin Chang of "Variety" gave a mixed review, and wrote: "Much nastier and less genteel than his best-known Stephen King adaptations ("The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile"), Frank Darabont's screw-loose doomsday thriller works better as a gross-out B-movie than as a psychological portrait of mankind under siege, marred by one-note characterizations and a tone that veers wildly between snarky and hysterical."


title: The Mist (film)

text: Bloody Disgusting ranked the film number four on their list of the "Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade", with the article saying "The scary stuff works extremely well, but what really drives this one home is Darabont's focus on the divide that forms between two factions of the townspeople—the paranoid, Bible-thumping types and the more rational-minded, decidedly left-wing members of the populace. This allegorical microcosm of G. W. Bush-era America is spot on, and elevates an already-excellent film to even greater heights."


title: The Mist (film)

text: The film was nominated for three Saturn Awards; Best Horror Film, Best Director, and a win for Best Supporting Actress for Harden.


title: The Mist (film)

text: The film was commercially released in the United States and Canada on November 21, 2007. Over the opening weekend in the United States and Canada, "The Mist" grossed $8,931,973. As of August 9, 2009, the film grossed $25,593,755 in the United States and Canada and $27,560,960 in other territories for a worldwide total of $57,289,103.


title: The Mist (film)

text: "The Mist" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 25, 2008. The single disc includes an audio commentary by writer/director Frank Darabont, eight deleted scenes with optional commentary, and "A Conversation With Stephen King and Frank Darabont" featurette.


title: The Mist (film)

text: The two-disc edition includes the exclusive black-and-white presentation of the film, as well as the color version, and five featurettes ("When Darkness Came: The Making of The Mist", "Taming the Beast: Shooting Scene 35", "Monsters Among Us: A Look at the Creature FX", "The Horror of It All: The Visual FX of The Mist", and "Drew Struzan: Appreciation of an Artist").


title: The Mist (film)

text: In November 2013, Bob Weinstein revealed that Darabont and he were developing a 10-part television series based on the film. In February 2016, Spike picked up the pilot. In April 2016, Spike ordered the series and Adam Bernstein directed the pilot, which premiered on June 22, 2017.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, he mainly plays guitar and keyboards and is noted for his falsetto. He has been described by "Rolling Stone" as one of the most influential singers of his generation.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Yorke formed Radiohead with schoolmates at Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, and studied at the University of Exeter. In 1991, Radiohead signed to Parlophone; their 1992 debut single, "Creep", made Yorke a celebrity, and Radiohead went on to achieve critical acclaim and sales of over 30 million albums. Yorke's early influences included alternative rock acts such as the Pixies and R.E.M; with Radiohead's fourth album, "Kid A" (2000), Yorke moved into electronic music, influenced by Warp acts such as Aphex Twin. With the artist Stanley Donwood, Yorke creates artwork for Radiohead albums and his other projects. He often incorporates "erratic" dancing into his performances.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Yorke's solo work comprises mainly electronic music. His debut solo album, "The Eraser", was released in 2006. To perform it live, in 2009 he formed a new band, Atoms for Peace, with musicians including the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and the Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. They released an album, "Amok", in 2013. Yorke's second solo album, "Tomorrow's Modern Boxes," was released in 2014, followed by "Anima" in 2019. In 2021, Yorke debuted a new band, the Smile, with the Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and the jazz drummer Tom Skinner. They released an album, "A Light for Attracting Attention", in 2022. Yorke has collaborated with artists including PJ Harvey, Björk, Flying Lotus and Modeselektor, and has composed for film and theatre; his first feature film soundtrack, "Suspiria," was released in October 2018.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Yorke is an activist on behalf of human rights, animal rights, environmental and anti-war causes, and his lyrics incorporate political themes. He has been critical of the music industry, particularly of major labels and streaming services such as Spotify. With Radiohead and his solo work, he has pioneered alternative release platforms such as pay-what-you-want and BitTorrent. Along with the other members of Radiohead, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Yorke was born on 7 October 1968 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. He was born with a paralysed left eye, and underwent five eye operations by the age of six. According to Yorke, the last surgery was "botched", giving him a drooping eyelid. He decided against further surgery: "I decided I liked the fact that it wasn't the same, and I've liked it ever since. And when people say stuff I kind of thought it was a badge of pride, and still do."


title: Thom Yorke

text: The family moved frequently. Shortly after Yorke's birth, his father, a nuclear physicist and later a chemical equipment salesman, was hired by a firm in Scotland. The family lived in Lundin Links until Yorke was seven, and he moved from school to school. The family settled in Oxfordshire in 1978, where Yorke attended Standlake Primary School.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Yorke said he knew he would become a rock star after seeing the Queen guitarist Brian May on television for the first time at the age of eight. He received his first guitar as a child; at 10, he made his own guitar, inspired by May's homemade Red Special. By 11, he had joined his first band and written his first song. Seeing Siouxsie Sioux in concert at the Apollo in 1985 inspired him to become a performer, saying he had never seen anyone "captivate an audience like she did".


title: Thom Yorke

text: Yorke attended the boys' public school Abingdon in Oxfordshire. He felt out of place, and got into physical fights with other students. He found sanctuary in the music and art departments, and wrote music for a school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Terence Gilmore-James, the Abingdon director of music, recalled Yorke as "forlorn and a little isolated" thanks to his unusual appearance, but talkative and opinionated. He said Yorke was "not a great musician", unlike his future bandmate Jonny Greenwood, but a "thinker and experimenter". Yorke later credited the support of Gilmore-James and the head of the art department for his success.


title: Thom Yorke

text: At Abingdon, Yorke met Ed O'Brien, Philip Selway and brothers Colin and Jonny Greenwood. In 1985, they formed a band, On a Friday, named after the only day they were allowed to practise.


title: Thom Yorke

text: After leaving school, Yorke took a gap year and tried to become a professional musician. He held several jobs, including a period selling suits, and made a demo tape. He was also involved in a serious car accident that influenced the lyrics of later songs, including the "Bends" B-side "Killer Cars" (1995) and "Airbag" from "OK Computer" (1997). In the late 1980s, Yorke made a solo album, "Dearest", which O'Brien described as similar to the Jesus and Mary Chain, with delay and reverb effects.


title: Thom Yorke

text: On the strength of their first demo, On a Friday were offered a record deal by Island Records, but the members decided they were not ready and wanted to go to university first. Yorke had wanted to apply to St John's to read English at the University of Oxford, but, he said, "I was told I couldn't even apply – I was too thick. Oxford University would have eaten me up and spat me out. It's too rigorous."


title: Thom Yorke

text: In late 1988, Yorke left Oxford to study English and fine arts at the University of Exeter, which put On a Friday on hiatus aside from rehearsals during breaks. At Exeter, Yorke performed experimental music with a classical ensemble, played in a techno group called Flickernoise, and played with the band Headless Chickens, performing songs including future Radiohead material. He also met the artist Stanley Donwood, who went on to produce artwork for Radiohead and Yorke's solo releases, and the printmaker Rachel Owen, Yorke's future wife. Yorke credited his art school education for preparing him creatively for his later work.


title: Thom Yorke

text: On a Friday resumed activity in 1991 as most of the members were finishing their degrees. Ronan Munro, editor of the Oxford music magazine "Curfew", gave the band their first interview while they were sharing a house in Oxford. He recalled that "Thom wasn't like anyone I'd interviewed before ... He was like 'This is going to happen… failure is not an option' ... He wasn't some ranting diva or a megalomaniac, but he was so focused on what he wanted to do."


title: Thom Yorke

text: In 1991, when Yorke was 22, On a Friday signed to Parlophone and changed their name to Radiohead. According to Yorke, around this time he "hit the self-destruct button pretty quickly"; he cut his hair and drank heavily, often becoming too drunk to perform. Radiohead gained notice with their debut single, "Creep", which appeared on their 1993 debut album, "Pablo Honey".


title: Thom Yorke

text: Yorke said that the success inflated his ego; he tried to project himself as a rock star, which included bleaching his hair and wearing extensions. He said: "When I got back to Oxford I was unbearable ... as soon as you get any success you disappear up your own arse." During a 1993 performance for MTV, Yorke was almost electrocuted after he jumped into a swimming pool and reached for a live microphone; an employee on the shoot kicked it away from him.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Paul Q Kolderie, the co-producer of "Pablo Honey," observed that Yorke's songwriting improved dramatically after "Pablo Honey." O'Brien later said: "After all that touring on "Pablo Honey" ... the songs that Thom was writing were so much better. Over a period of a year and a half, suddenly, "bang"." Recording Radiohead's second album, "The Bends" (1995), was stressful, with the band pressured to release a follow-up to "Creep". Yorke in particular struggled with the pressure; according to the band's co-manager Chris Hufford, "Thom became totally confused about what he wanted to do, what he was doing in a band and in his life, and that turned into a mistrust of everybody else."


title: Thom Yorke

text: "The Bends" received critical acclaim and brought Radiohead wider international attention. The American rock band R.E.M., a major influence on Radiohead, picked them as their support act for their European tour. Yorke befriended the R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, who gave him advice about how to deal with fame.


title: Thom Yorke

text: During the production of Radiohead's third album, "OK Computer" (1997), the members had differing opinions and equal production roles, with Yorke having "the loudest voice", according to O'Brien. "OK Computer "achieved critical acclaim and strong sales, establishing Radiohead as one of the leading rock acts of the 1990s, but Yorke was ambivalent about success. Yorke joined R.E.M. to perform their song "E-Bow the Letter" on several occasions from 1998 to 2004.


title: Thom Yorke

text: In 1997, Yorke provided backing vocals for a cover of the 1975 Pink Floyd song "Wish You Were Here" with Sparklehorse. The following year, he duetted on "El President" with Isabel Monteiro of Drugstore, and sang on the Unkle track "Rabbit in Your Headlights", a collaboration with DJ Shadow. "Pitchfork" credited "Rabbit in Your Headlights" as a "turning point" for Yorke, placing his vocals in the context of experimental electronic music for the first time and foreshadowing "Kid A". For the soundtrack of the 1998 film "Velvet Goldmine", Yorke formed Venus in Furs with Jonny Greenwood, Andy Mackay of Roxy Music, and Bernard Butler of Suede to cover Roxy Music songs.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Following the "OK Computer" tour, Yorke suffered a mental breakdown and found it impossible to write new music. He was approached to score the 1999 film "Fight Club", but declined as he was recovering from stress. He said later:


title: Thom Yorke

text: To recuperate, Yorke moved to Cornwall and spent time walking the cliffs, writing and drawing. He restricted his songwriting to piano; the first song he wrote was "Everything in Its Right Place". During this period, Yorke listened almost exclusively to the electronic music of artists such as Aphex Twin and Autechre, saying: "It was refreshing because the music was all structures and had no human voices in it. But I felt just as emotional about it as I'd ever felt about guitar music."


title: Thom Yorke

text: Radiohead took these influences to their next albums "Kid A" (2000) and "Amnesiac" (2001), processing vocals, obscuring lyrics, and using electronic instruments such as synthesisers, drum machines and samplers. The albums divided fans and critics, but were commercially successful and later attracted wide acclaim; at the turn of the decade, "Kid A" was named the best album of the 2000s by "Rolling Stone" and "Pitchfork".


title: Thom Yorke

text: In 2000, Yorke contributed vocals to three tracks on the PJ Harvey album "Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea," and duetted with Björk on her Oscar-nominated song "I've Seen It All". Radiohead released their sixth album, "Hail to the Thief", a blend of rock and electronic music, in 2003. Yorke wrote many of its lyrics in response to the War on Terror and the resurgence of right-wing politics in the west after the turn of the millennium, and his shifting worldview after becoming a father. Yorke and Jonny Greenwood contributed to the 2004 Band Aid 20 single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", produced by Godrich.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Yorke recorded his debut solo album, "The Eraser," during Radiohead's 2004 hiatus. He said: "I've been in the band since we left school and never dared do anything on my own... It was like, 'Man, I've got to find out what it feels like,' you know?" He stressed that Radiohead were not splitting up and that the album was made "with their blessing". According to Jonny Greenwood, Radiohead were happy for Yorke to make the album; he said, "He'd go mad if every time he wrote a song it had to go through the Radiohead consensus."


title: Thom Yorke

text: "The Eraser" was released in 2006 on the independent label XL Recordings, backed by the singles "Harrowdown Hill", which reached number 23 in the UK Singles Chart, and "Analyse". "The Eraser" reached the top ten in the UK, Ireland, United States, Canada and Australia, and was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Prize and the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. It was followed by a B-sides compilation, "Spitting Feathers", and a remix album by various artists, "The Eraser Rmxs".


title: Thom Yorke

text: In 2007, Radiohead independently released their seventh album, "In Rainbows", as a pay-what-you-want download, the first for a major act. The release made headlines worldwide and sparked debate about the implications for the music industry. In the same year, Yorke provided vocals for the Modeselektor tracks "The White Flash" from "Happy Birthday" (2007). Yorke sang backing vocals on Björk's 2008 charity single "Náttúra", and the following year recorded a cover of the Miracle Legion song "All for the Best" with his brother Andy for the compilation "".


title: Thom Yorke

text: In July 2009, Yorke performed solo at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk and released a double-A-side single, "FeelingPulledApartByHorses/TheHollowEarth". He also contributed the track "Hearing Damage" to the .


title: Thom Yorke

text: In 2009, Yorke formed a new band, Atoms for Peace, to perform songs from "The Eraser". Alongside Yorke on vocals, guitar and keyboards, the band comprises Godrich on keyboards and guitar, the bassist Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the drummer Joey Waronker of Beck and R.E.M., and the percussionist Mauro Refosco of Forro in the Dark. Yorke said: "God love 'em but I've been playing with [Radiohead] since I was 16, and to do this was quite a trip ... It felt like we'd knocked a hole in a wall, and we should just fucking go through it."


title: Thom Yorke

text: Atoms for Peace performed eight North American shows in 2010. They went unnamed for early performances, billed as "Thom Yorke" or "??????". In June, Yorke performed a surprise set at Glastonbury Festival with Greenwood, performing "Eraser "and Radiohead songs. In the same year, Yorke provided vocals for "...And the World Laughs with You" from the Flying Lotus album "Cosmogramma," and for "Shipwreck" and "This" on the Modeselektor album "Monkeytown." Along with Damien Rice and Philip Glass, he contributed to the soundtrack for the 2010 documentary "When the Dragon Swallowed the Sun". The following year, Yorke collaborated with the electronic artists Burial and Four Tet on "Ego" and "Mirror", and Yorke and Greenwood collaborated with the American rapper MF Doom on "Retarded Fren".


title: Thom Yorke

text: In 2011, Radiohead released their eighth album, "The King of Limbs", which Yorke described as "an expression of physical movements and wildness". Yorke sought to move further from conventional recording methods. The music video for the track "Lotus Flower", featuring Yorke's erratic dancing, became an internet meme.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Yorke remixed the 2012 single "Hold On" by the electronic musician Sbtrkt under the name Sisi BakBak; his identity was not confirmed until September 2014. He also provided vocals for "Electric Candyman" on the Flying Lotus album "Until the Quiet Comes" (2012)"."


title: Thom Yorke

text: In February 2013, Atoms for Peace released an album, "Amok," followed by a tour of Europe, the US and Japan. "Amok" received generally positive reviews, though some critics felt it was too similar to Yorke's solo work. That year, Yorke and Greenwood contributed music to "The UK Gold", a documentary about tax avoidance. The soundtrack was released free in February 2015 through the online audio platform SoundCloud.


title: Thom Yorke

text: Yorke released his second solo album, "Tomorrow's Modern Boxes", via BitTorrent on 26 September 2014. It became the most torrented album of 2014 (excluding piracy), with over a million downloads in its first six days. Yorke and Godrich hoped to use the BitTorrent release to hand "some control of internet commerce back to people who are creating the work". In December 2014, Yorke released the album on the online music platform Bandcamp along with a new track, "Youwouldn'tlikemewhenI'mangry".


title: Thom Yorke

text: In 2015, Yorke contributed a soundtrack, "Subterranea", to an installation of Radiohead artwork, "The" "Panic Office", in Sydney, Australia. The soundtrack, composed of field recordings made in the English countryside, played on speakers at different heights with different frequency ranges. The radio station Triple J described it as similar to the ambient sections of "Tomorrow's Modern Boxes", with some digitally spoken sections similar to "Fitter Happier" from "OK Computer". There music was not released. In July 2015, Yorke joined the band Portishead at the Latitude Festival to perform their song "The Rip".