title: Nigella Lawson

text: Lawson has adopted a casual approach to cooking, stating, "I think cooking should be about fun and family. ... I think part of my appeal is that my approach to cooking is really relaxed and not rigid. There are no rules in my kitchen." One editor, highlighting the technical simplicity of Lawson's recipes, noted that "her dishes require none of the elaborate preparation called for by most TV chefs".


title: Nigella Lawson

text: Lawson has become renowned for her flirtatious manner of presenting, although she argues "It's not meant to be flirtatious. ... I don't have the talent to adopt a different persona. It's intimate, not flirtatious". The perceived overt sexuality of her presentation style has led to Lawson being called the "queen of food porn". Many commentators have alluded to Lawson's attractiveness, and she was once named as one of the world's most beautiful women. She has been referred to as "stunningly beautiful, warm, honest, likeable and amazingly normal", as well as being described as having "flawless skin, perfect white teeth, a voluptuous body, ample height and lots of lush, brown hair." Lawson has also been voted "Sexiest Celebrity Chef".


title: Nigella Lawson

text: The media have also noted Lawson's ability to engage with both male and female viewers; "The Guardian" wrote, "Men love her because they want to be with her. Women love her because they want to be her." Chef Gary Rhodes said that viewers were attracted to her smile rather than her cooking. Despite often being labelled as a "domestic goddess", she insists that she exhibits very few of the qualities associated with the title.


title: Nigella Lawson

text: Lawson met journalist John Diamond in 1986, when they were both writing for "The Sunday Times". They married in Venice in 1992, and had a daughter, Cosima, and a son, Bruno. Diamond was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997 and died in March 2001, aged 47. One of his last messages to Lawson was, "How proud I am of you and what you have become. The great thing about us is that we have made us who we are." His death occurred during the filming of "Nigella Bites"; "I took a fortnight off. But I'm not a great believer in breaks", Lawson said; she suffered a bout of depression following the funeral. After Diamond's death, Lawson kept all of the press clippings in what she called her "Morbidobox".


title: Nigella Lawson

text: In June 2013, photographs were published by "The Sunday People" of Lawson being grabbed around the neck by Saatchi, during an argument outside a London seafood restaurant. According to a witness, Lawson was very distressed by the incident. Saatchi later described the pictures as showing only a "playful tiff" and his trying to emphasise a point. After a police investigation of the incident, Saatchi was cautioned for assault, and Lawson left the family home. Lawson said in court Saatchi subjected her to "intimate terrorism", that he threatened to destroy her unless she cleared him in court. Subsequently, while giving evidence, Lawson claimed casual cruelty and controlling behaviour by Saatchi made her unhappy and drove her to occasional drug use. She cited as examples that Saatchi prevented her entertaining at home and punished her for going to a birthday party of a woman friend. She was not beaten but was left emotionally scarred.


title: Nigella Lawson

text: Saatchi announced his divorce from Lawson in early July, stating that he had "clearly been a disappointment to Nigella during the last year or so" and the couple had "become estranged and drifted apart". Lawson made no public comment in response; however, court papers showed that it was Lawson who applied for divorce, citing ongoing unreasonable behaviour. On 31 July 2013, seven weeks after the incident, the pair were granted a decree nisi, ending their ten-year marriage. They reached a private financial settlement.


title: Nigella Lawson

text: On 27 November 2013, a trial of the former couple's two personal assistants, Italian-born sisters began in R v Grillo and Grillo. The Grillos were accused of fraudulently using the credit cards of Saatchi's private company. During court proceedings in early December, the sisters claimed that Lawson had permitted their use of the credit cards in exchange for their silence regarding her drug use. Questions regarding Lawson's drug use were allowed by the judge as part of the sisters' "bad character" defence. Lawson admitted to taking cocaine and cannabis but denied she had been addicted, stating, "I found it made an intolerable situation tolerable." On 20 December 2013, the two sisters were acquitted. Scotland Yard said that Lawson would not be investigated over the drug allegations.


title: Nigella Lawson

text: Charles Saatchi was alleged to have started a smear campaign against Lawson in the British media through PR man Richard Hillgrove before the trial was over. Lawson's lawyers demanded that Hillgrove remove comments about her from his blog. Lawson said in court that ending her marriage to Saatchi had created intolerable conditions for herself and her family, describing Saatchi as "a brilliant but brutal man".


title: Nigella Lawson

text: On 30 March 2014 Lawson was not permitted to board a flight from London to Los Angeles. The US Department of Homeland Security explained that foreigners who had admitted drug taking were deemed "inadmissible". However, US authorities invited her to apply for a visa shortly afterwards, and she was granted a "waiver of inadmissibility" allowing her to travel to the US.


title: Nigella Lawson

text: In 2008 Lawson reported that she held a personal fortune of £15 million. Her husband Charles Saatchi was worth £100 million at that time. She said her two children should not inherit any of her money, saying: "I am determined that my children should have no financial security. It ruins people not having to earn money."


title: Nigella Lawson

text: Lawson is of Jewish heritage. Both of Lawson's parents are Jewish and her upbringing was non-observant. Lawson is an atheist. In one of her newspaper articles, she said "most [women] simply have, somewhere, a fantasy about having sex, in a non-defining, non-exclusive way, with other women."


title: Nigella Lawson

text: Lawson is a supporter of the Lavender Trust which gives support to young women with breast cancer. She first became involved with the charity in 2002 when she baked some lavender cupcakes to be auctioned at a fundraising event, which sold for a significant amount of money. She subsequently featured the recipe in her book "Forever Summer with Nigella".


title: Nigella Lawson

text: In December 2008, Lawson was criticised by animal rights groups for comments which suggested it would be morally acceptable to wear the fur of an animal that one had killed, and that she would be proud to wear the fur of a bear that she had hunted or "[gone] into battle" with.


title: Nigella Lawson

text: It was revealed by leaked Whitehall documents in 2003 that Lawson declined an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 2001, explaining that "I'm not saving lives and I'm not doing anything other than something I absolutely love." As the daughter of a life peer, Lawson is entitled to the courtesy style of "The Honourable", and is thus named The Hon. Nigella Lawson; however, she does not use this courtesy style.


title: Nigella Lawson

text: Lawson has stated that she believes cooking is "a metaphor for life", in the sense that "When you cook, you need structure [...] but just as importantly you need to be able to loosen up and go with the flow [...] you must not strive for perfection but, rather, acknowledge your mistakes and work out how you can rectify them". She has described cooking as "a way of strengthening oneself", in the sense that "being able to sustain oneself is the skill of the survivor".


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala (born Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi; 14 February 1933 – 23 February 1969) was an Indian actress and producer who worked in Hindi-language films. She ranked as one of the highest-paid entertainers in India in the post-independence era, that coincided with the rise of Indian cinema on global levels. In a career spanning more than 20 years, Madhubala was predominantly active for only a decade but had appeared in over 60 films by the time of her death in 1969.


title: Madhubala

text: Born and raised in Delhi, Madhubala relocated to Bombay with her family when she was 8 years old and shortly after appeared in minor roles in a number of films. She soon progressed to leading roles in the late 1940s, and earned success with the dramas "Neel Kamal" (1947) and "Amar" (1954), the horror film "Mahal" (1949), and the romantic films "Badal" (1951) and "Tarana" (1951). Following a brief setback, Madhubala rose to international prominence with her roles in the comedies "Mr. & Mrs. '55" (1955), "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi" (1958) and "Half Ticket" (1962), the crime films "Howrah Bridge" and "Kala Pani" (both 1958), and the musical "Barsaat Ki Raat" (1960).


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala's portrayal of Anarkali in the historical epic drama "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960)the highest-grossing film in India at that point of timeearned her widespread critical acclaim and her only nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress; her performance has since been described by critics as one of the finest in Indian cinematic history. She worked sporadically in film in the 1960s, making her final appearance in the drama "Sharabi" (1964). Additionally, she produced three films under her production house Madhubala Private Ltd., which was co-founded by her in 1953.


title: Madhubala

text: Despite maintaining strong privacy, Madhubala earned significant media coverage for performing actively in charity, and for her relationships with actor Dilip Kumar, which lasted seven years, and with actor-singer Kishore Kumar, whom she eventually married in 1960. Since the beginning of her thirties, she suffered from recurring bouts of breathlessness and hemoptysis caused by a ventricular septal defect, ultimately leading to her premature death in 1969.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala was born as Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi in Delhi, British India, on 14 February 1933. She was the fifth of eleven children of Ataullah Khan and Aayesha Begum. At least four of Madhubala's siblings died as infants; her sisters who survived until adulthood were Kaneez Fatima (b. 1925), Altaf (b. 1930), Chanchal (b. 1934) and Zahida (b. 1949). Khan, who belonged to the Yusufzai tribe of Pashtuns from Peshawar valley, was an employee in Imperial Tobacco Company. Unknown to her family members, Madhubala was born with a ventricular septal defect, a congenital heart disorder which had no treatment at the time.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala spent most of her childhood in Delhi and grew up without any kind of health issues. Owing to the orthodox ideas of their Muslim father, neither Madhubala nor any of her sisters except Zahida attended school. Madhubala nevertheless learnt Urdu, Hindi as well as her native language, Pashto, under her father's guidance. An avid movie viewer since the beginning, she used to perform her favourite scenes in front of her mother and spend her time dancing and imitating film characters to entertain herself. In spite of her conservative upbringing, she aimed to become a film actorwhich her father strictly disapproved of.


title: Madhubala

text: Khan's decision changed in 1940 after he got fired from the employee company for misbehaving with a senior officer. Madhubala's mother feared ostracism if they allowed their young daughter to work in the entertainment industry, but Khan remained adamant. Soon Madhubala was employed at the All India Radio station to sing compositions of Khurshid Anwar. The seven-year-old continued working there for months, and became acquainted with Rai Bahadur Chunnilal, the general manager of the studio Bombay Talkies, situated in Bombay. Chunnilal took an immediate liking towards Madhubala, eventually suggesting Khan to visit Bombay for better employment opportunities.


title: Madhubala

text: In the summer of 1941, Khan, Madhubala and other family members relocated to Bombay and settled down in a cowshed present in the Malad suburbs of Bombay. Following an approval from the studio executives, Chunnilal signed Madhubala to a juvenile role in Bombay Talkies' production, "Basant" (1942), at a salary of 150. Released in July 1942, "Basant" became a major success commercially, but although Madhubala's work garnered appreciation, the studio dropped her contract as it did not require a child actor at that time. Disappointed, Khan had to once again return his family to Delhi. He subsequently found low-paid temporary jobs in the city, but continued to struggle financially.


title: Madhubala

text: In 1944, Bombay Talkies' head and former actress Devika Rani sent for Khan to summon Madhubala for role in "Jwar Bhata" (1944). Madhubala did not get the film but Khan now decided to settle permanently in Bombay seeing a prospect in films. The family again returned to their temporary residence in Malad and Khan and Madhubala began paying frequent visits to film studios throughout the city in search of work. Madhubala was soon signed to a three-year contract with Chandulal Shah's studio Ranjit Movietone, on a monthly payment of 300. Her income led to Khan shifting the family to a neighbouring rented house in Malad.


title: Madhubala

text: In April 1944, the rented house was destroyed in a dock explosion; Madhubala and her family survived only because they had gone to a local theatre. After shifting into her friend's house, Madhubala continued her film career, playing minor roles in five of Ranjit's films: "Mumtaz Mahal" (1944), "Dhanna Bhagat" (1945), "Rajputani" (1946), "Phoolwari" (1946) and "Pujari" (1946); she was credited as "Baby Mumtaz" in all of them. She faced numerous problems in these years; during the shoot of "Phoolwari" in 1945, Madhubala vomited blood, which forewarned her illness that was slowly taking root. In 1946, she had to borrow money from a film producer for the treatment of her pregnant mother. Eager to establish a foothold in the industry, in November 1946, Madhubala began shooting for two of Mohan Sinha's directorial ventures, "Chittor Vijay" and "Mere Bhagwaan", which were supposed to be her introduction to the silver-screen in adult roles.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala's first project in a lead role was Sohrab Modi's "Daulat", but it was shelved indefinitely (and would not be revived until the next year). Her debut as a leading lady came in Kidar Sharma's drama "Neel Kamal", in which she starred opposite debutante Raj Kapoor and Begum Para. She was offered the film after Sharma's first choice, actress Kamla Chatterjee, died. Released in March 1947, "Neel Kamal" was popular with audience and garnered wide public recognition for Madhubala. She then reteamed with Kapoor in "Chittor Vijay" and "Dil Ki Rani", both of which were released in 1947, and in "Amar Prem", which came out the following year. These films were unsuccessful ventures that failed to propel her career ahead. During this period, she had to charge a relatively lesser amount than her usual fee to attract more offers. To secure her family financially, Madhubala quickly signed 24 films. Impressed by her work in "Neel Kamal", in which Madhubala was credited as "Mumtaz", Devika Rani suggested her to take "Madhubala" as her professional name.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala found her first critical and commercial success in the drama "Lal Dupatta", which "The Indian Express" mentioned as a breakthrough for her. Baburao Patel described the film as "the first milestone of her maturity in screen acting." She received further positive reviews for her supporting parts in "Parai Aag" (1948), "Paras" and "Singaar" (both 1949). In 1949, Madhubala played a "femme fatale" in Kamal Amrohi's "Mahal"the first horror film of Indian cinema. Several actresses including Suraiya were considered for the role but Amrohi insisted on casting Madhubala. Her character was that of Kamini, a servant girl in an ancient mansion, whose pretensions of an apparition lead to disastrous consequences. The film was produced on a modest budget due to financial constraints, with trade analysts predicting it to be a failure owing to its unconventional subject. "Mahal" was released in October 1949 and proved to be an immensely popular film among audience. In "Beyond the Boundaries of Bollywood", Rachel Dwyer noted that Madhubala's ignorance among audience added to the mysterious nature of her character. The film, which would be Madhubala's first of many collaborations with actor and brother-in-law Ashok Kumar, emerged as the third biggest box-office success of the year, resulting in her signing a string of starring roles opposite the leading actors of the time.


title: Madhubala

text: Following another box office hit in "Dulari" (1949), Madhubala played Ajit's love interest in K. Amarnath's social drama "Beqasoor" (1950). The feature received positive reviews and ranked among the year's top-grossing Bollywood productions. Also in 1950, she appeared in the comedy-drama "Hanste Aansoo", which became the first Indian film to be awarded an adult's certification. The following year, Madhubala starred in the Amiya Chakravarty-directed action film "Badal" (1951), a remake of "The Adventures of Robin Hood". Her portrayal of a princess who ignorantly falls in love with Prem Nath's character received mixed reviews; a critic praised her looks but advised her to "learn to speak her dialogue slowly, distinctly and effectively instead of rattling through her lines in a monotone." She subsequently played the titular part in M. Sadiq's romance "Saiyan", which Roger Yue of "The Singapore Free Press" commented was played "to perfection". Both "Badal" and "Saiyan" proved to be major box-office successes. Madhubala then collaborated with actor Dilip Kumar twice in a row, on the 1951 comedy "Tarana" and the 1952 drama "Sangdil". These films also performed well financially, popularizing the on and offscreen couple among wide audience. Baburao Patel's "filmindia" review of "Tarana" read, "Incidentally, Madhubala gives the best performance of her screen career in this picture. She seems to have discovered her soul at last in Dilip Kumar's company."


title: Madhubala

text: The period during the mid-1950s saw a drop in Madhubala's success, as most of her releases failed commercially, leading her to be labelled "box office poison". Madhubala was cast in the costume drama "Shahehshah" (1953) before Kamini Kaushal replaced her. In April 1953, Madhubala founded a production company called Madhubala Private Ltd. The following year, while shooting in Madras for S. S. Vasan's "Bahut Din Huwe" (1954), she suffered a major health setback due to her heart disease. She returned to Bombay after completing the film and took a short-term medical leave from work, which led to her replacement (by Nimmi) in "Uran Khatola" (1955). Madhubala later starred in another film of 1954Mehboob Khan's "Amar", portraying a social worker involved in a love triangle along with Dilip Kumar and Nimmi. Madhubala improvised a scene from the film; it was unsuccessful at the box-office. Nevertheless, Rachit Gupta of "Filmfare" stated that Madhubala overshadowed her co-stars and "floored her role with a nuanced performance." Writing for Rediff.com in 2002, Dinesh Raheja described "Amar" as "arguably Madhubala's first truly mature performance" and particularly noted a dramatic scene featuring her with Dilip. Madhubala's next release was her own production venture, "Naata" (1955), in which she co-starred with her real-life sister Chanchal. The film met with a tepid response and lost a lot of money, leading Madhubala to sell her bungalow "Kismet" to compensate.


title: Madhubala

text: Undeterred by recent failures, Madhubala made a comeback in 1955 with Guru Dutt's comedy "Mr. & Mrs. '55", which emerged as one of the year's highest-grossing films in India and her biggest success at that point of time. The film saw Madhubala playing Anita Verma, a naive heiress who is forced into a sham marriage with Dutt's character by her spinster aunt (Lalita Pawar). Harneet Singh of "The Indian Express" called "Mr. & Mrs. '55" "a great ride" and acknowledged Madhubala's "impish charm and breezy comic timing" as one of its prime assests. A conflict broke out between Madhubala–Khan and director B. R. Chopra in mid-1956 over the location shoot of "Naya Daur", in which Madhubala was cast to play the female protagonist. Citing her as uncooperative and unprofessional, Chopra replaced Madhubala with Vyjayanthimala and further sued the former for 30 thousand in damages. The lawsuit continued for about eight months admist public scrutiny before Chopra withdrew it after "Naya Daur" got released.


title: Madhubala

text: During the years 1956–57, Madhubala slightly reduced her workload due to the lawsuit and health issues. She and Nargis were approached by Guru Dutt to play either of the two female leads (an unfaithful girlfriend or a hooker with a heart of gold) in his production, "Pyaasa" (1957). However, unable to choose between the two leading roles, the actresses passed over the film to the newcomers Mala Sinha and Waheeda Rehman. Madhubala appeared in two period films in 1956, "Raj Hath" and "Shirin Farhad", both critical and commercial successes. The following year, she portrayed a runaway heiress in Om Prakash's "Gateway of India" (1957), which critic Deepa Gahlot believed to be one of the finest performances of her career. Madhubala then starred in the drama "Ek Saal" (1957), which followed a terminally-ill ingenue (Madhubala) who falls in love with Ashok Kumar's character. The film proved popular with audience and became as a box office hit, thereby re-establishing Madhubala's stardom.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala began the year 1958 with Raj Khosla's "Kala Pani", in which she co-starred with Dev Anand and Nalini Jaywant, playing an intrepid journalist investigating a 15-year-old murder. She was then cast as Edna opposite Ashok Kumar in "Howrah Bridge" (1958), her first collaboration with director Shakti Samanta. Madhubala waived her fees to play the role of an Anglo-Indian cabaret dancer, which marked a departure from her previous portrayals of sophisticated characters. Both "Howrah Bridge" and "Kala Pani" begot positive reviews for her and became two of the year's top-grossing films. She followed this success with the box office hit "Phagun" (1958). In her final release of 1958, Madhubala portrayed a wealthy city woman involved in a love affair with Kishore Kumar in Satyen Bose's comedy "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi"one of the biggest money-making pictures of the 1950s. Dinesh Raheja of Rediff.com referred to the film as the "fifties jest-setter", adding that Madhubala "exudes oodles of charisma and her giggles are infectious." Writing for the same portral in 2012, columnist Rinki Roy mentioned Madhubala's character in "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi" as "a top favourite": "Her breezy performance stands out as that rare example of an independent, urban woman. [...] For me, Madhubala is the face of the original celluloid diva."


title: Madhubala

text: Her second collaboration with Samanta, "Insan Jaag Utha" (1959), was a social drama film in which the protagonists work on the construction of a dam. A modest success, its critical reception has improved over years. Rachit Gupta of "Filmfare" and Roktim Rajpal of "Deccan Herald" have cited Madhubala's performance as Gauri, a village belle, as one of her finest works. Further in 1959, she received praise for playing dual roles in "Kal Hamara Hai", also starring Bharat Bhushan. Khatija Akbar, the author of "" (1997), called her turn as "a polished performance, particularly in the role of the misguided 'other' sister." The commercial success of "Do Ustad" (1959), which saw her reuniting with Raj Kapoor, was followed by the second film of Madhubala Private Ltd.—the comedy "Mehlon Ke Khwab" (1960). It fared poorly at the box office.


title: Madhubala

text: Journalist Dinesh Raheja described K. Asif's "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960) as the "crowning glory" of Madhubala's career. Co-starring Dilip Kumar and Prithviraj Kapoor, the film revolves on a 16th-century court dancer, Anarkali (Madhubala), and her affair with the Mughal prince Salim (Kumar). Since the mid-1940s, Asif had rejected numerous actresses for the part of Anarkali. Madhubala joined the cast in 1952 and received an advance payment of Rs. 1 lakhthe highest for any actor or actress until then. The filming period proved to be taxing. Her relationship with Kumar ended amidst shooting and there were reports of animosity between the actors. Madhubala was also troubled by the night schedules and complicated dance sequences, which she had been medically asked to avoid. She fell under the weight of iron chains, extinguished candles with her palm, starved herself for days to depict anguishness in particular scenes and had continuous water flung at her face and whole body painted. The principal photography for "Mughal-e-Azam" was finished in May 1959 and left her exhausted, both physically and mentally, to a point that she began considering a retirement.


title: Madhubala

text: "Mughal-e-Azam" was first of Madhubala's two films in colour; it had four reels shot in Technicolor. The film had the widest release of any Indian film up to that time, and patrons often queued all day for tickets. Released on 5 August 1960, it broke box office records in India and became the highest-grossing Indian film of all time, a distinction it would hold for 15 years. At the 1961 National Film Awards, "Mughal-e-Azam" won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and led the 8th Filmfare Awards ceremony with 11 nominations, including Best Actress for Madhubala. A reviewer for "The Indian Express" commented, "Scene after scene bears testimony to the outstanding gifts of Madhubala as a natural actress [...] The way she presents Anarkali's changing moods as she passes through the lightning vicissitudes in her life is superb."


title: Madhubala

text: The success of "Mughal-e-Azam" resulted in a string of offers in major roles, but Madhubala had to refuse them owing to her heart condition. She further withdrew from some productions that were already underway, including "Bombai Ka Babu", "Naughty Boy", "Jahan Ara", "Yeh Basti Ye Log", "Suhana Geet" and an untitled film with Kishore Sahu. She did, however, had few more releases, which were completed either by body doubles or by Madhubala herself. In late 1960, Madhubala was seen in Shakti Samanta's crime film "Jaali Note", based on the theme of counterfeit money; it was successful financially. However, Karan Bali of Upperstall.com mentioned her role as "sketchy" and found the romance between her and Dev Anand's characters unconvincing. Madhubala's starring role in the musical "Barsaat Ki Raat" (1960) was better received. The feature was the year's second-highest-grossing film, trailing only "Mughal-e-Azam". A critic for "The Indian Express" found her "enchanting", while Venkat Parsa of "The Siasat Daily" noted the rebellious nature of her character, Shabnam, who elopes with her lover (played by Bharat Bhushan) after her parents object to the relationship.


title: Madhubala

text: The back-to-back blockbuster successes of "Mughal-e-Azam" and "Barsaat Ki Raat" established Madhubala as the most successful leading lady of 1960. She subsequently discontinued her career and only preferred starring as love interests in a few films, including the comedies "Jhumroo" (1961), "Boy Friend" (1961) and "Half Ticket" (1962), and the dramas "Passport" (1961) and "Sharabi" (1964). Her all three 1961 releases were among the top-grossing productions of the year. "Half Ticket", her last collaboration with husband Kishore Kumar was a critical and commercial success as well. Sukanya Verma called the film one of her most favourite comedies of all time, praising the "palpably fond chemistry" between Madhubala and Kishore. Also released in 1962 was Madhubala Private Ltd.'s third and last presentation, "Pathan", which turned out to be a box office flop. Following a sabbatical of two years, she completed "Sharabi" in 1964; the film became her final release in her lifetime. Baburao Patel, writing for "Mother India", praised Madhubala's performance for "reviv[ing] the old heartache". An editor for Rediff.com called "Sharabi" a "fitting finale to a luminous career, showing the actress at her most beautiful and her most effective, a heroine destined not to age in any of our eyes."


title: Madhubala

text: In 1971, one of Madhubala's incomplete works, "Jwala", was released. Co-starring Sunil Dutt and Sohrab Modi, the film was mainly completed with the help of body doubles. It marked Madhubala's final screen role.


title: Madhubala

text: Born in an orthodox family, Madhubala was deeply religious and practiced Islam since her childhood. After securing her family financially in the late 1940s, she rented a bungalow on Peddar Road in Bombay and named it "Arabian Villa". It became her permanent residence until death. She learnt driving at the age of 12 and by adulthood was an owner of five cars: Buick, Chevrolet, Station wagon, Hillman, and Town & Country (which was owned by only two people in India at that time, Maharaja of Gwalior and Madhubala). As a native speaker of three Hindustani languages, she began learning English in 1950 from former actress Sushila Rani Patel and grew fluent in the language in three months. She also kept eighteen Alsatian dogs as pets in Arabian Villa.


title: Madhubala

text: In mid-1950, Madhubala was diagnosed with an incurable ventricular septal defect in her heart during a medical checkup; the diagnosis was not made a public information as it could jeopardize her career.


title: Madhubala

text: She performed actively in charity, which led editor Baburao Patel to call her the "queen of charity". In 1950, she donated 5,000 each to children suffering from polio myelitis and to the Jammu And Kashmir relief fund, and 50,000 for the refugees from East Bengal. Madhubala's donation sparked off a major controversy due to her religious beliefs and received wide coverage in the media at that time. Subsequently, she kept her charity work guarded and donated anonymously. In 1954, it was revealed that Madhubala had been regularly giving monthly bonuses to the lower staff of her studios. She also gifted a camera crane to the Film and Television Institute of India in 1962, which is operational even today.


title: Madhubala

text: When she was a minor and in Delhi, Madhubala had a close friend named Latif, to whom she left a rose before her family relocated to Bombay. While working as a child artist in the mid-1940s, Madhubala befriended Baby Mahjabeen, another child actor of that time, who later grew up as actress Meena Kumari. Despite their professional rivalry, Madhubala shared a cordial relationship with Kumari as well as other female stars, such as Nargis, Nimmi, Begum Para, Geeta Bali, Nirupa Roy and Nadira. In 1951, following a major conflict with the press, Madhubala established a friendship with journalist B. K. Karanjia, who became one of the few people of his profession to be allowed inside Arabian Villa. Sarla Bhushan, the wife of Bharat Bhushan, with whom Madhubala had a special bond, died of labour complications in 1957, much to her distress. Madhubala was also close to three of her earliest directorsKidar Sharma, Mohan Sinha, and Kamal Amrohiand while there have been rumours regarding her being emotionally involved with them, her younger sister Madhur Bhushan has refuted such claims. On the sets of "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960), Madhubala often ate lunch with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a Pakistani barrister who later served as the country's Prime Minister. He used to visit the sets especially for Madhubala, and according to Sushila Kumari was Madhubala's one-sided lover.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala's first relationship was with her "Badal" co-star Prem Nath, in early 1951. They broke-up under six months due to religious differences. Nath nevertheless remained close to Madhubala and her father Ataullah Khan for the rest of their lives. Also in 1951, Madhubala began a romance with actor Dilip Kumar, whom she had earlier met working on "Jwar Bhata" (1944). Their affair went on to receive wide media attention throughout the decade. It had a positive impact on Madhubala and her friends have recalled the following few years as the happiest of her life.


title: Madhubala

text: As their relationship progressed, Madhubala and Dilip got engaged but could not marry as Khan had some objections. Khan wanted Dilip to act in his production house's films, which the actor refused. Also, Dilip specified to Madhubala that if they were to marry, she will have to sever all ties with her family. She parted ways with him in 1957 amidst the court case over the production of "Naya Daur" (1957). Dilip testified against her and Khan in court, which left Madhubala devastated. In the meantime, Madhubala was proposed marriage by three of her co-stars: Bharat Bhushan, a widower, Pradeep Kumar and Kishore Kumar, both of whom were already married.


title: Madhubala

text: On the sets of "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi" (1958), Madhubala rekindled a friendship with Kishore Kumar, her childhood playmate and her friend Ruma Guha Thakurta's ex-husband. Following a two-year-long courtship, Madhubala married Kishore in court on 16 October 1960. The union was kept from the industry and was not announced until the newlyweds held a reception some days later. Moreover, the couple were considered mismatch due to their contrasting personalities.


title: Madhubala

text: Soon after their marriage in 1960, Madhubala and Kishore Kumar traveled to London along with her doctor Rustom Jal Vakil, combining their honeymoon with the specialised treatment of Madhubala's heart disease, which was aggravating rapidly. In London, doctors refused to operate on her, fearing complications, and instead advised Madhubala to avoid any kind of stress and anxiety. She was dissuaded from having any children and given a life expectancy of two years.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala and Kishore subsequently returned to Bombay and she shifted to Kishore's home in Bandra. Her health conditions continued declining and she now frequently quarrelled with her husband. Ashok Kumar (Kishore's elder brother) recalled that her sickness turned her into a "bad-tempered" person and she spent most of her time in her father's house. To escape the bitterness of her in-laws due to religious differences, Madhubala later moved into Kishore's newly bought flat at Quarter Deck in Bandra. However, Kishore stayed in the flat only for a short period and then left her alone with a nurse and a driver. Although he was bearing all her medical expenses, Madhubala felt abandoned and returned to her own house in less than two months of her marriage. For the rest of her life, he visited her occasionally, which Madhubala's sister Madhur Bhushan thought was possibly to "detach himself from her so that the final separation wouldn't hurt."


title: Madhubala

text: In late June 1966, Madhubala seemed to have partly recovered and decided to return to film again with J. K. Nanda's "Chalaak", opposite Raj Kapoor, which was unfinished since she left the industry. Her comeback was welcomed by the media, but Madhubala immediately fainted as the shoot began; the film was thus never completed. She was subsequently hospitalized in the Breach Candy Hospital, where she met her former boyfriend Dilip Kumar and returned home after being discharged. To alleviate her insomnia, Madhubala used hypnotic on Ashok's suggestion, but it further exacerbated her problems.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala spent her final years bedridden and lost a lot of weight. Her particular fascination was Urdu poetry and she regularly watched her films (particularly "Mughal-e-Azam") on a home projector. She grew very reclusive, meeting only Geeta Dutt and Waheeda Rehman from the film industry in those days. She had to undergo exchange transfusion almost every week. Her body began producing excess blood that would spill out of her nose and mouth; Vakil had to thus extract the blood to prevent complications, and an oxygen cylinder had to kept by her side as she often suffered from hypoxia. After the "Chalaak" incident, Madhubala turned her attention to film direction and began preparing for her directorial debut, titled "Farz aur Ishq", in February 1969.


title: Madhubala

text: By early 1969, Madhubala's health was in serious and major decline: she had just contracted jaundice and on urinalysis was diagnosed as having hematuria. Madhubala suffered a heart attack in the midnight of 22 February. After struggling for few hours amongst her family members and Kishore, she died at 9:30 a.m. of 23 February, only nine days after turning 36. Madhubala was buried at Juhu Muslim Cemetery in Santacruz, Bombay along with her personal diary. Her tomb was built with marbles and inscriptions include aayats from Quran and verse dedications.


title: Madhubala

text: Due to Madhubala's absence from the social scene for almost a decade, her death was perceived as unexpected and found wide coverage in the Indian press. "The Indian Express" recalled her as "the most sought-after Hindi film actress" of her times, while "Filmfare" characterized her as "a Cinderella whose clock had struck twelve too soon". A number of her co-workers including Premnath (who wrote a poem dedicated to her), B. K. Karanjia and Shakti Samanta expressed their grief over her premature death. Gossip columnist Gulshan Ewing commented in a personal farewell titled "The Passing of Anarkali", writing, "She loved life, she loved the world and she was often shocked to find that the world did not always love her back. [...] To her, all life was love, all love was life. That was Madhubalaloveliest of the shining stars."


title: Madhubala

text: In 2010, Madhubala's tomb along with those of other industry stalwarts was demolished to make way for newer graves. Her remains were placed at an unknown location.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala was one of the most celebrated film stars in India from the late 1940s to early 1960s. In 1951, James Burke photographed her for a feature in the American magazine "Life", which described her as the biggest star in the Indian film industry at that time. Her fame reached beyond India as well: director Frank Capra offered her a break in Hollywood (which her father declined) and in August 1952, David Cort of "Theatre Arts Magazine" wrote of her as "the biggest star in the worldand she's not in the Beverley Hills." Cort estimated Madhubala's Indian and Pakistani fan base equal to the combined population of the contemporary United States and western Europe, and also reported her popularity in countries such as Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia and East Africa. Along with Nargis, she also had large fan following in Greece.


title: Madhubala

text: Dilip Kumar described Madhubala as "extremely popular ... the only star for whom people thronged outside the gates ... It wasn't so for anyone else." Her fame was acknowledged by "Time" magazine also, which went on to call her a "cash and curry star" in its January 1959 issue. In films, she was often billed before the leading man, and web portal Rediff.com mentioned her as a more powerful celebrity than her male contemporaries. For "Mahal" (1949), her first film under a major production company, Madhubala was paid a sum of 7 thousands. The film's success established her career as a leading lady, and she subsequently became one of the highest-paid Indian stars of the upcoming decade. In 1951, filmmaker and editor Aurbindo Mukhopadhyay reported that Madhubala charges 1.5 lakh per film. She received an unprecedented amount of 3 lakh for her decade-long work in "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960). Madhubala was placed seven times on Box Office India's list of top actresses from 1949 to 1951, and from 1958 to 1961.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala's beauty and physical attractiveness were widely acknowledged, and led the media to refer to her as "The Venus of Indian cinema" and "The Beauty with Tragedy". In 1951, Clare Mendonca of "The Illustrated Weekly of India" called her "the number one beauty of the Indian screen". Several of her co-workers cited her as the most beautiful woman they ever saw. Nirupa Roy said that "there never was and never will be anyone with her looks" while Nimmi (co-star in the 1954 film "Amar") admitted passing a sleepless night after her first meeting with Madhubala. In 2011, Shammi Kapoor confessed to falling in love with her during the shoot of the 1953 film "Rail Ka Dibba": "Even today ... I can swear that I have never seen a more beautiful woman. Add to that her sharp intellect, maturity, poise and sensitivity ... When I think of her even now, after six decades, my heart misses a beat. My God, what beauty, what presence." Due to her perceived appeal, Madhubala became one of the brand ambassadors of beauty products by Lux and Godrej. However, she stated that happiness matters more to her than physical beauty.


title: Madhubala

text: From the beginning of her career, Madhubala gained a reputation for avoiding parties and refusing interviews, leading her to be labeled recluse and arrogant. On an unusual instance in 1958, her father even wrote an apology letter to then-Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, for disallowing Madhubala to attend Nehru's private function where she was invited. Having been a part of the film industry since childhood, Madhubala saw the social scene as superficial and expressed her despise of "the kind of functions where only the current favourites are invited and where a decade or two hence I would not be invited." In a two decade-long career, Madhubala was seen at the premieres of only two films"Bahut Din Huwe" (1954) and "Insaniyat" (1955)both for personal reasons. Her regular photographer, Ram Aurangbadakar complained that she "lacked warmth" and "was very detached", which is also reflected in Ashokamitran's statement describing her as an inarticulate and pitiful person. Gulshan Ewing, one of Madhubala's closest associates, however, differed and stated that her friend "was none of these." Nadira added that Madhubala "had not a strain of pettiness, of anything small. That girl did not know anything about hate," and Dev Anand recalled her as a "self-assured [and] cultured [person], very independent in her thinking and particular about her way of life and her position in the film industry."


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala's refusal to grant interviews or to interact with the press drew in extreme reactions from its members. By early 1950, Khan had begun asserting in her film contracts that no journalists would be allowed to meet her without his permission. When shortly after Madhubala declined to entertain a set of visiting journalists on set, they started vilifying her and her family and further placed a bounty to behead and kill her. For self-protection, Madhubala was given the permission to carry a revolver and move around under armed protection by the state government, until Khan and other journalists ultimately made a settlement. Her relationship with the press remained bitter, nevertheless, and she was regularly pointed out by it for her religious beliefs and perceived arrogance. Another major controversy she faced during her career was the "Naya Daur" civil war fought against B. R. Chopra, which Bunny Reuben mentions in his memoir as "the most sensational court case ever to be fought in the annals of Indian cinema."


title: Madhubala

text: Regardless of all these dissensions, Madhubala was known in the media as a disciplined and professional performer, with Kidar Sharma (director of the 1947 film "Neel Kamal") recalling her early days in the industry, "She worked like a machine, missed a meal, travelled daily in the over-crowded third-class compartments from Malad to Dadar and was never late or absent from work." Anand said in a 1958 interview, "When Madhubala is on the set, one often goes much ahead in the schedule." Except for the filming of "Gateway of India" (1957) and "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960), Khan never allowed Madhubala to work in nights. Despite medical precautions, she performed even exhausting scenes by herself, such as doing complicated dances, wearing iron chains twice of her body weight and getting wet in water.


title: Madhubala

text: In a 22-year-long career, Madhubala acted in almost every film genre, ranging from romantic musicals to slapstick comedies, and crime thrillers to historical dramas. The author of "Celebrities: A Comprehensive Biographical Thesaurus of Important Men and Women in India" (1952), Jagdish Bhatia noted that Madhubala turned her disadvantages into advantage and despite her non-filmy background "rose to be one of the most talented female stars of the industry." Baburao Patel, writing for "Filmindia", called her "easily our most talented, most versatile and best-looking artiste." A number of her directors including Sharma, Shakti Samanta and Raj Khosla spoke highly of her acting talents on different occasions. Ashok Kumar described her as the finest actress he ever worked with, while Dilip Kumar wrote in his autobiography that she was "a vivacious artiste ... so instantaneous in her responses that the scenes became riveting even when they were being filmed ... she was an artiste who could keep pace and meet the level of involvement demanded by the script."


title: Madhubala

text: Writing retrospectively for "The New York Times", Aisha Khan characterised Madhubala's acting style as "natural" and "understated", noting that she often portrayed roles of "modern young women testing the limits of traditions". Film critic Sukanya Verma felt that actresses like Madhubala "should be applauded for doing more than just looking good and crying buckets." Madhubala was acknowledged in the media for her unconventional roles, such as a flirtatious cabaret dancer in "Howrah Bridge" (1958)which led "Filmfare" to compare her with Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardnera rebellious and independent woman in "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi" (1958), and a fearless court dancer in "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960). Her roles in "Amar" (1954), "Gateway of India" (1957), and "Barsaat Ki Raat" (1960) have also been noted by modern-day critics for being offbeat and significantly different from the usual portrayals of female characters in Indian cinema. Madhubala has also been credited for introducing several modern styles, such as trousers (for females) and strapless dresses in Bollywood. Her distinctive wavy hairstyle was referred to as "the out-of-the-bed look" and further established her screen persona as a liberated and independent woman. David Cort summarized her as "the ideal of the free Indian woman or what India hopes the free Indian woman will be."


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala had the shortest career among her contemporaries, but by the time she quit acting, she had already successfully featured in over 70 films. Her screen time in leading roles was always equal to her male co-starswhich has otherwise been a rarityand she has also been credited for being one of the earliest personalities who, in the era of mass communication, took the position of Indian cinema to global standards. Moreover, with "Bahut Din Huwe" (1954), Madhubala became the first Hindi actress to have a career in south Indian cinema. Jerry Pinto has cited Madhubala as one of the earliest Bollywood actresses who created a distinct sex symbol by "merg[ing]" "the vamp and the virgin", and publications including Rediff.com and "Hindustan Times" mentioned her among the topmost sex symbols of Bollywood. A 2011 poll conducted by Rediff.com saw Madhubala receiving the third highest number of votes among "the hottest women who've ever scorched our screens"; the portal's writer commented, "In the end, I guess, it's about beauty. And there weren't many who could match up to the ethereal Madhubala."


title: Madhubala

text: Although Madhubala appeared in almost all film genres during her career, her most notable films included comedies. She gained recognition for her comic timing after her performance in "Mr. & Mrs. '55" (1955), which Iqbal Masud of "India Today" call "a marvellous piece of sexy-comic acting." However, despite her success and fame, she neither received any acting award nor critical acclaim. Several critics have stated that her perceived beauty was an impediment to her craft to be taken seriously. Madhubala wished to play more dramatic and author-backed roles, but was often discouraged. According to Dilip Kumar, audience "missed out on a lot of her other attributes." Biographer Sushila Kumari said that "people were so mesmerised by her beauty that they never cared for the actress", and Shammi Kapoor thought of her as "a highly underrated actress in spite of performing consistently well in her films."


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala's talents were first acknowledged after the release of "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960), but it turned out to be one of her final films. Her dramatic portrayal of Anarkaliranked amongst Bollywood's finest female performances by "Upperstall.com" and by "Filmfare" in generalestablished her as an enduring figure in Indian cinema. One of the romantic scenes from the film, in which Dilip Kumar brushes Madhubala's face with a plume, was declared the most erotic scene in Bollywood's history by "Outlook" in 2008, and by "Hindustan Times" in 2011. Her critical reception improved in the 21st century, with Khatija Akbar noting that Madhubala's "brand of acting had an underplayed and spontaneous quality. Anyone looking for heavy histrionics and laboured 'acting' missed the point". In 1999, M. L. Dhawan of "The Tribune" stated that Madhubala "could communicate more with her delicately raised eyebrows than most performers could with a raised voice" and "knew the knack of conveying her character's inner-most feelings." Priya Ramani of "Mint" added: "You only had to slip her into a wet sari, ask her to lean invitingly into the camera or hand her co-star a feather, and you could comfortably forecast that the cinematic sigh would resonate for at least a hundred years."


title: Madhubala

text: In recent years, Madhubala's legacy has maintained fans of all different ages, both younger and older. She is recognized even by those who are unfamiliar with vintage cinema and has dozens of fan sites dedicated to her on the social media. Modern magazines continue to publish stories on her personal life and career, often promoting her name heavily on the covers to attract sales. Her legacy has extended to fashion also: she has been acknowledged as the creator of many iconic fashion styles, such as wavy hairstyle and strapless dresses, which are widely followed by many celebrities. In accordance with her enduring popularity, News 18 wrote, "the cult of Madhubala is a difficult thing to match up to." Several modern-day celebrities, including Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Rishi Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah rank Madhubala among their favorite artistes of Indian cinema. Research analyst Rohit Sharma has studied narratives about Madhubala and surmised the reason behind her continued relevancy among new generation:


title: Madhubala

text: On the occasion of her eighty-fifth birthday, Nivedita Mishra of "Hindustan Times" described Madhubala as "by far, the most iconic silver screen goddess India has produced." In the decades following her death, she has emerged as one of the most celebrated personalities in the Indian cinematic field, and her reputation has endured. Also in polls and surveys, she is described as one of India's finest and most beautiful actresses of all-time. Khatija Akbar, Mohan Deep and Sushila Kumari have also written books about her.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala has served as the inspiration behind the characters of actresses Soha Ali Khan, Kangana Ranaut and Deepika Padukone in "Khoya Khoya Chand" (2007), "Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai" (2010), and "Bajirao Mastani" (2015), respectively.


title: Madhubala

text: In July 2018, Madhubala's sister Madhur Bhushan, announced that she was planning to make a biopic on her sister. Bhushan wants Kareena Kapoor to play Madhubala, but as of 2018, the project remains in its initial stages. In November 2019, filmmaker Imtiaz Ali was considering a biopic of Madhubala, but later dropped the idea after her family denied permission. Actresses including Kriti Sanon, Kangana Ranaut, Kiara Advani, and Janhvi Kapoor have expressed their wish to play Madhubala in a biopic.


title: Madhubala

text: Madhubala appeared in 72 films between 1942 and 1964, including "Basant" (1942), "Neel Kamal" (1947), "Mahal" (1949), "Badal" (1951), "Tarana" (1951), "Amar" (1954), "Mr. & Mrs. '55" (1955), "Kala Pani" (1958), "Howrah Bridge" (1958), "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi" (1958), "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960), "Barsaat Ki Raat" (1960), "Half Ticket" (1962) and "Sharabi" (1964). Her seventy-third and last film was the posthumously released "Jwala" (1971). She was credited as a producer in "Naata" (1955), "Mehlon Ke Khwab" (1960) and "Pathan" (1962). For her work in "Mughal-e-Azam", Madhubala was nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Actress; it was the only nomination she ever received.


title: Todd Phillips

text: Todd Phillips (né Bunzl, born December 20, 1970) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He began his career in 1993 and directed films in the 2000s such as "Road Trip", "Old School", "Starsky & Hutch", and "School for Scoundrels". He came to wider prominence in the early 2010s for directing "The Hangover" film series. In 2019, he co-wrote and directed the psychological thriller film "Joker", based on the DC Comics character of the same name, which premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival where it received the top prize, the Golden Lion. "Joker" went on to earn Phillips three Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, with his co-writer Scott Silver, his second, third, and fourth Academy Award nominations after also being nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Borat at the 79th Academy Awards.


title: Todd Phillips

text: Phillips was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to a Jewish family. He was raised in Dix Hills, New York, on Long Island. He attended New York University Film School, but dropped out because he could not afford to complete his first film and pay tuition simultaneously. Around that time, he worked at Kim's Video and Music.


title: Todd Phillips

text: Phillips appeared as one of the drivers in the first season of the HBO hidden camera docu-series "Taxicab Confessions". In a "New York Times" profile, Phillips said he had gotten in trouble for shoplifting as a young man.


title: Todd Phillips

text: Phillips' first documentary film, "", centered on the life and death of controversial punk rocker GG Allin, while as a junior at NYU and it went on to become one of the highest grossing student films at the time, even getting a limited theatrical release. Phillips wrote a letter to convicted serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, an acquaintance of GG, asking if he could paint a movie poster for the film. Phillips stated that "Gacy is really the executive producer" of the film, having raised $10,000 from selling replicas of his artwork.


title: Todd Phillips

text: Next, he co-directed with then-partner Andrew Gurland for "Frat House", a second documentary about college fraternities; it premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary features. It was produced by HBO, but never aired on its channel because many of the film's participants claimed they were paid to re-enact their activities. It was never proven either way.


title: Todd Phillips

text: His third documentary "Bittersweet Motel" centered on the jam band Phish, covering its summer and fall 1997 tours, plus footage from their 1998 spring tour of Europe. It ends at The Great Went, a two-day festival held in upstate Maine which attracted 70,000 people. While at Sundance with "Frat House", Phillips met director-producer Ivan Reitman who led Phillips into writing and directing his comedy films, "Road Trip" and "Old School", for Reitman's Montecito Picture Company.


title: Todd Phillips

text: Phillips also wrote and directed the 2004 film "Starsky & Hutch" starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, as well as the 2006 film "School for Scoundrels", starring Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder. In 2005, "Details Magazine" cited Judd Apatow, Adam McKay and Phillips as "The Frat Pack". He worked on the satirical comedy "" (2006), but he resigned his position as a director in early 2005, due to creative differences. Nevertheless, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his role in fashioning the story.


title: Todd Phillips

text: After establishing Green Hat Films in 2008, Phillips directed and produced "The Hangover", that was made for a reported $35 million and went on to become the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in 2009. Its worldwide gross stood at $480 million on February 3, 2012. The film went on to win the Golden Globe for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy). It also won Best Comedy at the 2009 Broadcast Film Critics Awards. Phillips took almost no up-front salary in exchange for a large share of the film's profits, and has said that the movie's enormous success, combined with his deal, makes it "my "Star Wars"". After a worldwide gross of $467 million, his share in the film made Phillips around $50 million.


title: Todd Phillips

text: In 2010, Phillips directed, produced and co-wrote the comedy "Due Date", which starred Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. It was a box office success, grossing $211,780,324 worldwide.


title: Todd Phillips

text: In the fall of 2010, production on "The Hangover Part II" began in Bangkok, Thailand that Phillips directed, produced and co-wrote. The film shot for 63 days and broke various records upon its release on May 26, 2011. With the film debuting at midnight with showings in 2,600 theaters, the film earned $10.4 million, breaking the record for the biggest midnight opening for an R-rated film. "The Hangover Part II" went on to accrue a launch day total of $31.6 million; nearly doubling "The Hangover"s Friday launch opening ($16.7 million). This amount broke two further records; the highest-grossing opening day for a live-action comedy and the highest-grossing opening day for an R-rated comedy film, replacing "Sex and the City" ($26.7 million). The three-day opening weekend accumulated $85,946,294 – an average of $23,923 per theater – becoming the highest grossing opening weekend for a comedy film, replacing "The Simpsons Movie" ($74 million). For the Memorial Day four-day weekend, the film amassed $103.4 million to become the fourth-highest-grossing Memorial Day weekend opening. Finally, the film's worldwide gross of $581,464,305 beat the previous R-rated comedy record holder "The Hangover" to become the highest-grossing R-rated comedy film of all time (now surpassed by both "Deadpool" movies).


title: Todd Phillips

text: He returned to direct, write, and produce "The Hangover Part III", which was released in 2013. It grossed over $300 million, pushing "The Hangover Trilogy"s total box office gross to $1.4 billion.


title: Todd Phillips

text: In 2016, following the successes of "The Hangover" trilogy, Phillips directed, produced, and co-wrote the crime film "War Dogs", starring Jonah Hill and Miles Teller.


title: Todd Phillips

text: Phillips directed, co-wrote, and co-produced an origin story film of DC Comics's supervillain, the Joker. The script, set in 1981, was co-written by Scott Silver, and the film starred Joaquin Phoenix in the title role. The film premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival and was released in October 2019.


title: Todd Phillips

text: Phillips is scheduled to direct a biographical film about Hulk Hogan, starring Chris Hemsworth in the lead role. Frequent collaborator Scott Silver is a co-writer, alongside John Pollono. Phillips is producing the film with Bradley Cooper, one of the lead actors of Phillips' "The Hangover" trilogy and producer on "Joker".


title: Todd Phillips

text: When asked in a 2014 interview by the BBC if he believes in God, Phillips replied: "Personally I don't. But I believe there's a higher power, a collective energy in people that you might say is God".


title: Todd Phillips

text: Phillips said in 2019, in the aftermath of his dark drama "Joker" release, that he had stopped making comedy films because of the backlash of "woke culture", saying: "Go try to be funny nowadays... There were articles written about why comedies don't work anymore— I'll tell you why, because all the fucking funny guys are like, 'Fuck this shit, because I don't want to offend you.' It's hard to argue with 30 million people on Twitter."


title: Fallingwater

text: Fallingwater is a house designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in the Laurel Highlands of southwest Pennsylvania, about southeast of Pittsburgh in the United States. It is built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The house was designed to serve as a weekend retreat for Liliane and Edgar J. Kaufmann, the owner of Pittsburgh's Kaufmann's Department Store.


title: Fallingwater

text: After its completion, "Time" called Fallingwater Wright's "most beautiful job" and it is listed among "Smithsonian"s "Life List of 28 Places to See Before You Die". The house was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 11th, 1976. In 1991, members of the American Institute of Architects named Fallingwater the "best all-time work of American architecture" and in 2007, it was ranked 29th on the list of America's Favorite Architecture according to the AIA.


title: Fallingwater

text: The house and seven other Wright constructions were inscribed as a World Heritage Site under the title, "The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright", in 2019.


title: Fallingwater

text: At age 67, Frank Lloyd Wright was given the opportunity to design and construct three buildings. With his three works of the late 1930s—Fallingwater; the Johnson Wax Building in Racine, Wisconsin; and the Herbert Jacobs house in Madison, Wisconsin—Wright regained his prominence in the architectural community.


title: Fallingwater

text: Edgar J. Kaufmann was a Pittsburgh businessman and president of Kaufmann's Department Store. Liliane Kaufmann, like her husband, was a keen outdoors person; she enjoyed both hiking and horseback riding. She had a strong aesthetic sensibility which is reflected in the house's design.


title: Fallingwater

text: Edgar and Liliane's only child, Edgar Kaufmann Jr., became the catalyst for his father's relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright. In the summer of 1934, Kaufmann read Frank Lloyd Wright's "An Autobiography" (1932) and traveled to meet him at his home in Wisconsin in late September. Within three weeks, he began an apprenticeship at the Taliesin Fellowship, a communal architecture program established in 1932 by Wright and his wife, Olgivanna. It was during a visit with their son at Taliesin in November 1934 that Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann first met Wright.


title: Fallingwater

text: The Kaufmanns lived in La Tourelle, a French Norman estate in Fox Chapel designed in 1923 by Pittsburgh architect Benno Janssen. However, the family also owned a remote property outside Pittsburgh—a small cabin near a waterfall—which was used as a summer retreat. When these cabins deteriorated, Kaufmann contacted Wright.


title: Fallingwater

text: On December 18, 1934, Wright visited Bear Run and asked for a survey of the area around the waterfall. One was prepared by Fayette Engineering Company of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, including all the site's boulders, trees, and topography, and forwarded to Wright in March 1935.


title: Fallingwater

text: As reported by Frank Lloyd Wright's apprentices at Taliesin, Kaufmann was in Milwaukee on September 22, nine months after their initial meeting, and called Wright at home early Sunday morning to surprise him with the news that he would be visiting him that day. Wright had told Kaufmann in earlier communications that he had been working on the plans but had not actually drawn anything. After breakfast, amid a group of very nervous apprentices, Wright calmly drew the plans in the two hours in which it took Kaufmann to drive to Taliesin. Witness Edgar Tafel, an apprentice at the time, stated later that when Wright was designing the plans he spoke of how the spaces would be used, directly linking form to function.


title: Fallingwater

text: Wright designed the home above the waterfall: Kaufmann had expected it to be below the falls to afford a view of the cascades. It has been said that he was initially very upset with this change.


title: Fallingwater

text: The Kaufmanns planned to entertain large groups so the house needed to be larger than the original plot allowed. They also requested separate bedrooms as well as a bedroom for their adult son and an additional guest room. A cantilevered structure was used to address these requests. The structural design for Fallingwater was undertaken by Wright in association with staff engineers Mendel Glickman and William Wesley Peters, who had been responsible for the columns in Wright's revolutionary design for the Johnson Wax Headquarters.


title: Fallingwater

text: Preliminary plans were issued to Kaufmann for approval on October 15, 1935, after which Wright made an additional visit to the site to generate a cost estimate for the job. In December 1935, an old rock quarry was reopened to the west of the site to provide the stones needed for the house's walls. Wright visited only periodically during construction, assigning his apprentice Robert Mosher as his permanent on-site representative. The final drawings were issued by Wright in March 1936 with work beginning on the bridge and main house in April.


title: Fallingwater

text: The construction was plagued by conflicts between Wright, Kaufmann, and the contractor. Uncomfortable with what he saw as Wright's insufficient experience using reinforced concrete, Kaufmann had the architect's daring cantilever design reviewed by a firm of consulting engineers. Upon receiving their report, Wright took offense, immediately requesting that Kaufmann return his drawings and indicating that he was withdrawing from the project. Kaufmann relented to Wright's gambit and the engineer's report was subsequently buried within a stone wall of the house.


title: Fallingwater

text: For the cantilevered floors, Wright and his team used upside-down T-shaped beams integrated into a monolithic concrete slab which formed both the ceiling of the space below and provided resistance against compression. The contractor, Walter Hall, also an engineer, produced independent computations and argued for increasing the reinforcing steel in the first floor's slab—Wright refused the suggestion. There was speculation over the years that the contractor quietly doubled the amount of reinforcement versus Kaufmann's consulting engineers doubling the amount of steel specified by Wright. During the process of restoration begun in 1995, it was confirmed that additional concrete reinforcement had been added.


title: Fallingwater

text: In addition, the contractor did not build in a slight upward incline in the formwork for the cantilever to compensate for its settling and deflection. Once the formwork was removed, the cantilever developed a noticeable sag. Upon learning of the unapproved steel addition, Wright recalled Mosher. With Kaufmann's approval, the consulting engineers had a supporting wall installed under the main supporting beam for the west terrace. When Wright discovered it on a site visit, he had Mosher discreetly remove the top course of stones. When Kaufmann later confessed to what had been done, Wright showed him what Mosher had done and pointed out that the cantilever had held up for the past month under test loads without the wall's support.


title: Fallingwater

text: The original estimated cost for building Fallingwater was $35,000. The final cost for the home and guest house was $155,000, which included $75,000 for the house; $22,000 for finishings and furnishings; $50,000 for the guest house, garage and servants' quarters; and an $8,000 architect's fee. From 1938 through 1941, more than $22,000 was spent on additional details and for changes in the hardware and lighting.


title: Fallingwater

text: The total cost of $155,000, adjusted for inflation, is equivalent to about $ million in 2021. The cost of the house's restoration in 2001 was estimated to be $11.5 million (approximately $ million in 2021).


title: Fallingwater

text: Fallingwater was the Kaufmann family's weekend home from 1937 until 1963, when Edgar Kaufmann Jr. donated the property to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. The family retreated to Fallingwater on weekends to escape the heat and smoke of industrial Pittsburgh. Liliane enjoyed swimming in the nude and collecting modern art, especially the works of Diego Rivera, who was a guest at the country house.


title: Fallingwater

text: Kaufmann Jr. said, "[Wright] understood that people were creatures of nature, hence an architecture which conformed to nature would conform to what was basic in people. For example, although all of Falling Water [sic] is opened by broad bands of windows, people inside are sheltered as in a deep cave, secure in the sense of the hill behind them."


title: Fallingwater

text: Fallingwater stands as one of Wright's greatest masterpieces both for its dynamism and for its integration with its striking natural surroundings. Fallingwater has been described as an architectural "tour de force" of Wright's organic architecture. Wright's passion for Japanese architecture was strongly reflected in the design of Fallingwater, particularly in the importance of interpenetrating exterior and interior spaces and the strong emphasis placed on harmony between man and nature. Contemporary Japanese architect Tadao Ando has said of the house:I think Wright learned the most important aspect of architecture, the treatment of space, from Japanese architecture. When I visited Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, I found that same sensibility of space. But there was the additional sounds of nature that appealed to me.


title: Fallingwater

text: The organically designed private residence was intended to be a nature retreat for its owners. The house is well-known for its connection to the site. It is built on top of an active waterfall that flows beneath the house.


title: Fallingwater

text: The fireplace hearth in the living room integrates boulders found on the site and upon which the house was built—a ledge rock which protrudes up to a foot through the living room floor was left in place to link the outside with the inside. Wright had initially intended that the ledge be cut flush with the floor but this had been one of the family's favorite sunning spots, so Kaufmann suggested that it be left as it was. The stone floors are waxed while the hearth is left plain, giving the impression of dry rocks protruding from a stream.


title: Fallingwater

text: Integration with the setting extends even to small details. For example, where glass meets stone walls no metal frame is used; rather, the glass and its horizontal dividers were run into a caulked recess in the stonework so that the stone walls appear uninterrupted by glazing. From the cantilevered living room, a stairway leads directly down to an isolated platform at the stream below. A connecting space which connects the main house with the guest and servant level, a natural spring drips water inside, which is then channeled back out. Bedrooms are small, some with low ceilings to encourage people outward toward the open social areas, decks, and outdoors.


title: Fallingwater

text: Bear Run and the sound of its water permeate the house, especially during the spring when the snow is melting, and locally quarried stone walls and cantilevered terraces resembling the nearby rock formations are meant to be in harmony. The design incorporates broad expanses of windows and balconies which reach out into their surroundings. In conformance with Wright's views, the main entry door is away from the falls.


title: Fallingwater

text: On the hillside above the main house stands a four-bay carport, servants' quarters, and a guest house. These attached outbuildings were built two years later using the same quality of materials and attention to detail as the main house. The guest quarters feature a spring-fed swimming pool which overflows and drains to the river below.


title: Fallingwater

text: Wright had initially planned to have the house blend into its natural settings in rural Pennsylvania. In doing so, he limited his palette to two colors, a light ocher for the concrete and his signature Cherokee red for the steel.


title: Fallingwater

text: After Fallingwater was deeded to the public, three carport bays were enclosed at the direction of Kaufmann Jr. to be used by museum visitors to view a presentation at the end of their guided tours on the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (to which the home was entrusted). Kaufmann Jr. designed its interior himself to specifications found in other Fallingwater interiors by Wright.


title: Fallingwater

text: After his father's death in 1955, Kaufmann Jr. inherited Fallingwater, continuing to use it as a weekend retreat until the early 1960s. Increasingly concerned with ensuring Fallingwater's preservation and following his father's wishes, he entrusted the home and approximately 1,500 acres of land to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in tribute to his parents. He guided the organization's thinking about Fallingwater's administration, care, and educational programming and was a frequent visitor as guided tours began in 1964. Kaufmann's partner, architect and designer Paul Mayén, also contributed to the legacy of Fallingwater with a design for the visitor center, completed in 1981. The house attracts more than 160,000 visitors from around the world each year.


title: Fallingwater

text: Fallingwater had shown signs of deterioration over the past 80 years due in large part to its exposure to humidity and sunlight. The severe freeze-thaw conditions of southwest Pennsylvania and water infiltration also affected the structural materials. Because of these conditions, a thorough cleaning of the exterior stone walls is performed periodically.


title: Fallingwater

text: Fallingwater's six bathrooms are lined with cork tiles. When used as a flooring material, the cork tiles were hand-waxed, giving them a shiny finish that supplemented their natural ability to repel water. Over time the cork has begun to show water damage, requiring the Conservancy to make frequent repairs.


title: Fallingwater

text: In addition, Fallingwater's structural system includes a series of very bold reinforced concrete cantilevered balconies. Pronounced deflection of the concrete cantilevers was noticed as soon as the formwork was removed during construction. This deflection increased over time, eventually reaching over a span.


title: Fallingwater

text: In 1995, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy commissioned a study of the site's structural integrity. Structural engineers analyzed the movement of the cantilevers over time and conducted radar analysis to locate and quantify the reinforcement. The data proved the contractor had indeed added reinforcement over Wright's plan; nevertheless, the cantilevers were still insufficiently reinforced. Both the concrete and its steel reinforcement were close to their failure limits. An architectural firm was hired to fix the problem beginning with the installation of temporary girders in 1997.


title: Fallingwater

text: In 2002, the structure was repaired permanently using post-tensioning. The living room flagstone floor blocks were individually tagged and removed. Blocks were joined to the concrete cantilever beams and floor joists; high-strength steel cables were fed through the blocks and exterior concrete walls and tightened using jacks. The floors and walls were then restored, leaving Fallingwater's interior and exterior appearance unchanged. Today, the cantilevers have sufficient support and the deflection has stopped. The Conservancy continues to monitor movement in the cantilevers.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed VI (; born 21 August 1963) is the King of Morocco. He belongs to the 'Alawi dynasty and acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Upon ascending to the throne, Mohammed initially introduced a number of reforms and changed the family code, "Mudawana", granting women more power. Leaked diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks in 2010 led to allegations of corruption in the court of Mohammed, implicating him and his closest advisors. Widespread disturbances in 2011, a Moroccan element of the Arab Spring, protested against corruption and urged political reform. In response, Mohammed put into effect a program of reforms and introduced a new constitution. These reforms were passed by a public referendum on 1 July 2011.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed has vast business holdings across several economic sectors in Morocco. His net worth has been estimated at between and over US$8.2 billion, and, according to the American business magazine "Forbes", he was the richest king in Africa and the fifth wealthiest monarch in the world.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed is regarded by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre as the seventh most influential Muslim in the world in 2022.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed VI was born on 21 August 1963 and was the second child and oldest son of Hassan II and his wife, Lalla Latifa Hammou. As their oldest son, Mohammed became heir apparent and Crown Prince from birth. His father was keen on giving him a religious and political education from an early age; at the age of four, he started attending the Quranic school at the Royal Palace.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed VI completed his first primary and secondary studies at Collège Royal and attained his Baccalaureate in 1981, before gaining a bachelor's degree in law at the Mohammed V University at Agdal in 1985. His research paper dealt with "the Arab-African Union and the Strategy of the Kingdom of Morocco in matters of International Relations". He has also frequented the Imperial College and University of Rabat. He was furthermore appointed president of the Pan Arab Games, and was commissioned a Colonel Major of the Royal Moroccan Army on 26 November 1985. He served as the Coordinator of the Offices and Services of the Royal Armed Forces until 1994.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: In 1987, Mohammed VI obtained his first "Certificat d'Études Supérieures" (CES) in political sciences, and in July 1988 he obtained a "Diplôme d'Études Approfondies" (DEA) in public law. In November 1988, he trained in Brussels with Jacques Delors, then-President of the European Commission.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed VI obtained his PhD in law with distinction on 29 October 1993 from the French University of Nice Sophia Antipolis for his thesis on "EEC-Maghreb Relations". On 12 July 1994, he was promoted to the military rank of Major General, and that same year he became president of the High Council of Culture and Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Moroccan Army.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: The "New York Times" reported that prior to ascending to the throne, Mohammed VI "gained a reputation as a playboy during the years he spent waiting in the wings, showing a fondness for fast cars and nightclubs."


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: On 23 July 1999, following the death of his father, Mohammed VI ascended to the throne as king and was enthroned in Rabat on 30 July.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Shortly after his ascension, King Mohammed VI made a national televised address, promising to take on poverty and corruption, while creating jobs and improving Morocco's human rights record. His reformist rhetoric was opposed by Islamist conservatives, and some of his reforms angered fundamentalists. In February 2004, he enacted a new family code, or Mudawana, which granted women more power.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed VI also created the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER), which was tasked with researching human rights violations under Hassan II. This move was welcomed by many as promoting democracy, but was also criticized because the commission's reports could not name the perpetrators. According to human rights organisations, human rights violations are still common in Morocco.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: The 2011 Moroccan protests, led by the 20 February Movement, were primarily motivated by corruption and general political discontentment, as well as by the hardships of the global economic crisis. The demonstrations were influenced by then-recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt which overthrew their respective leaders, and demands by protesters included "urgent" political and social reforms, including the relinquishment of some of the King's powers.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: In a speech delivered on 9 March 2011, Mohammed VI said that parliament would receive "new powers that enable it to discharge its representative, legislative, and regulatory mission". In addition, the powers of the judiciary were granted greater independence from the king, who announced that he was impaneling a committee of legal scholars to produce a draft constitution by June 2011. On 1 July, voters approved a set of political reforms proposed by Mohammed VI in a referendum.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: The Western Sahara conflict is considered one of the longest-running on the African continent. Mohammed VI has repeatedly stressed that the "Moroccanness of the Sahara" remains an "indisputable fact", a stance adopted by Morocco following the 1975 Green March during the reign of Hassan II. He visited Western Sahara in 2006 and 2015, and has asserted that Morocco was not negotiating over the territory, as the issue "never was - and never will be - on the negotiating table".


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: In March 2006, Mohammed VI created the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), an advisory committee which defends Morocco's claim over Western Sahara. In 2021, the CORCAS condemned the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, citing human rights concerns.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Morocco's stance on the Western Sahara is that it is an integral part of its territory and it has proposed a plan for its autonomy, provided it remains under Moroccan sovereignty. The Polisario Front, the main opposite party to the conflict, insists on ultimately pursuing for the establishment of an independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Morocco and the Polisario Front reached a ceasefire agreement in 1991, which included the establishment of a United Nations peacekeeping mission (MINURSO) to oversee and conduct a potential referendum on the future status of Western Sahara; to this day, such a referendum has never occurred.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Since 2019, several primarily African and Arab countries have established consulates in Laayoune and Dakhla. In 2020, an escalation of the conflict began when Sahrawi protesters blocked a road connecting Guerguerat to sub-Saharan Africa via Mauritania. Morocco responded by intervening militarily to resume movement of people and goods through Guerguerat, which the Polisario Front claimed had violated the 1991 ceasefire agreement.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed VI increasingly prioritized African relations in Morocco's foreign policy. Morocco had previously withdrawn from the Organisation of African Unity, precursor to the current African Union (AU), in 1984 after the Polisario's Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was admitted to the organisation. In July 2016, Mohammed VI sent a message to the 27th African Union summit being held in Kigali, in which he requested Moroccan readmission to the AU, and justified his country's withdrawal saying that "the admission of a non-sovereign entity, by means of transgression and collusion" had prompted Morocco to "seek to avoid the division of Africa". Morocco would later be admitted to the African Union in January 2017.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Under his reign, Morocco endorsed partnerships with the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as other non-traditional great powers, mainly China and Russia, aiming to diversify trade links and foreign investments and to limit Morocco's traditional reliance on the West, particularly the European Union (EU). Morocco has also offered to act as a mediator in the Libyan crisis, and remained neutral in the Qatar diplomatic crisis.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: The Bush administration designated Morocco as a major non-NATO ally of the United States in 2004. Mohammed VI had previously visited the White House in June 2000, alongside his sister, Princess Lalla Meryem, and attended a state dinner with President Bill Clinton. Washington and Rabat later signed a free-trade agreement in 2006, the only one of its kind between the U.S. and an African country, which was met with some criticism within Morocco due to increasing trade deficit.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Morocco and Israel restored diplomatic relations on 10 December 2020, as part of the Israel–Morocco normalization agreement involving the United States, which at the same time recognized Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara. In June 2021, Mohammed congratulated Naftali Bennett on his election as Israeli prime minister. On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in November 2021, Mohammed announced that Morocco would continue to push for a restart of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. He called on both sides "to refrain from actions that obstruct the peace process".


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Despite calls by Mohammed VI for reconciliation, relations with neighbouring Algeria continued to intensify over the course of his rule. In July 2004, Mohammed announced that Morocco would lift visa restrictions for Algerians, with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika reciprocating the measure in 2005. Tensions gradually escalated in the 2020s, primarily as a result of the Israel–Morocco normalization agreement and Guerguerat border clashes. In August 2021, Algeria accused Morocco of supporting the Movement for the self-determination of Kabylie, which it blamed for wildfires in northern Algeria, and later severed diplomatic relations with Morocco.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: In August 2022, during a speech marking the anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People, Mohammed VI said that the Western Sahara issue "is the lens through which Morocco looks at the world", and through which it "measures the sincerity of friendships and the efficiency of partnerships", while calling on other countries "to clarify their positions [regarding the Western Sahara] and reconsider them in a manner that leaves no room for doubt".


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed is Morocco's leading businessman and banker. In 2015, he was estimated by "Forbes" magazine to be worth US$5.7bn although in 2019 "Business Insider" quoted a figure of just US$2.1 billion. The Moroccan Royal Family, meanwhile, has one of the largest fortunes in the world. Together, they hold the majority stakes in the Al Mada holding, formerly named the "Société Nationale d'Investissement" (SNI), which was originally state-owned but was merged in 2013 with Omnium Nord Africain (ONA Group), to form a single holding company that was taken off the Casablanca Stock Exchange—resulting in the scrapping of an equivalent of 50 billion Dirhams Marketcap (~US$6 billion). Al Mada has a diverse portfolio consisting of many important businesses in Morocco, operating in various sectors including: Attijariwafa Bank (banking), Managem (mining), Onapar, SOMED (tourism/real-estate and exclusive distributor of Maserati), Wafa Assurance (insurance), Marjane (hypermarket chain), Wana-Inwi (telecommunications), SONASID (Siderurgy), Lafarge Maroc, Sopriam (exclusive distributor of Peugeot-Citroën in Morocco), Renault Maroc (exclusive distributor of Renault in Morocco) and Nareva (energy). It also owns many food-processing companies and is currently in the process of disengaging from this sector. Between mid-2012 and 2013, the holding sold "Lessieur", "Centrale Laitière", "Bimo" and "Cosumar" to foreign groups for a total amount of ~$1.37 billion (11.4 billion Dirhams including 9.7 billion in 2013 and 1.7 in 2012).


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: SNI and ONA both owned stakes in Brasseries du Maroc, the largest alcoholic beverages manufacturer and distributor of brands such as Heineken in the country. In March 2018, the SNI adopted its current name, Al Mada.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed is also a leading agricultural producer and land owner in Morocco, where agriculture is exempted from taxes. His personal holding company SIGER has shares in the large agricultural group ""Les domaines agricoles"" (originally called ""Les domaines royaux"", now commonly known as ""Les domaines""), which was founded by Hassan II. In 2008, Telquel estimated that ""Les domaines"" had a revenue of $157 million (1.5 billion Dirhams), with 170,000 tons of citrus exported in that year. According to the same magazine, the company officially owns 12,000 hectares of agricultural lands. ""Chergui"", a manufacturer of dairy products, is the most recognizable brand of the group. Between 1994 and 2004, the group has been managed by Mohammed VI's brother-in-law Khalid Benharbit, the husband of Princess Lalla Hasna. ""Les domaines"" also owns the "Royal Golf de Marrakech", which originally belonged to Thami El Glaoui.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: His palace's daily operating budget is reported by Forbes to be $960,000—which is paid by the Moroccan state as part of a 2.576 billion Dirhams/year budget as of 2014—with much of it accounted for by the expense of personnel, clothes, and car repairs.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Protests broke out in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, on 2 August 2013, after Mohammed pardoned 48 jailed Spaniards, including a pedophile who had been serving a 30-year sentence for raping 11 children aged between 4 and 15.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: It was also revealed that amongst the pardoned was a drug trafficking suspect, who was released before standing trial. The detainee, Antonio Garcia, a recidivist drug trafficker, had been arrested in possession of 9 tons of hashish in Tangier and was sentenced to 10 years. He had resisted arrest using a firearm. Some media claimed that his release embarrassed Spain.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Royal involvement in business is a major topic in Morocco, but public discussion of it is sensitive. The US embassy in Rabat reported to Washington in a leaked cable that "corruption is prevalent at all levels of Moroccan society". Corruption allegedly reaches the highest levels in Morocco, where the business interests of Mohammed VI and some of his advisors influence "every large housing project," according to WikiLeaks documents published in December 2010 and quoted in "The Guardian" newspaper. The documents released by the whistleblower website also quote the case of a businessman working for a US consortium, whose plans in Morocco were paralysed for months after he refused to join forces with a company linked with the royal palace. The documents quoted a company executive linked to the royal family as saying at a meeting that decisions on big investments in the kingdom were taken by only three people: the king, his secretary Mounir Majidi, and the monarch's close friend, adviser and former classmate Fouad Ali El Himma. This corruption especially affects the housing sector, the WikiLeaks documents show.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed has one brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, and three sisters: Princess Lalla Meryem, Princess Lalla Asma, and Princess Lalla Hasna. "The New York Times" noted "conflicting reports about whether the new monarch had been married on Friday night, within hours of his father's death [in 1999]... to heed a Moroccan tradition that a King be married before he ascends the throne." A palace official subsequently denied that a marriage had taken place.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: His engagement to Salma Bennani was officially announced on 12 October 2001. They married in private in Rabat on 21 March 2002 and their wedding was officially celebrated at the "Dar al-Makhzen" in Rabat on 12 and 13 July 2002. Bennani was granted the personal title of Princess with the title of Her Royal Highness on her marriage. They have two children: Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, who was born on 8 May 2003, and Princess Lalla Khadija, who was born on 28 February 2007.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed's birthday on 21 August is a public holiday, although festivities were cancelled upon the death of his aunt in 2014.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Many questions have been raised about King Mohammed VI's health both within and outside Morocco. On one occasion, following a speech commemorating the 45th anniversary of the Green March, Moroccan online activists reportedly pointed out facial features which may have been implied as a sign of health issues, while others offered sympathy and prayers.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: In 2017, Mohammed VI underwent a successful surgery at the Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital in Paris to remove a pterygium in his left eye. In February 2018, he underwent a radiofrequency ablation, also in Paris, to normalize an irregular heart rate, and was visited by members of the royal family. In September 2019, the King was advised to rest for several days to recover from acute viral pneumonia, with his son Crown Prince Moulay Hassan representing him at former French President Jacques Chirac's funeral. In June 2020, he underwent a procedure in Rabat to treat a recurrence of atrial flutter.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: In June 2022, Mohammed VI tested positive for COVID-19. His personal doctor said he did not exhibit symptoms and recommended "a period of rest for a few days", while "Jeune Afrique" reported he contracted the disease in France, where he had previously arrived for a private visit. On 10 July, he made his first public appearance since his COVID-19 recovery, performing Eid al-Adha rituals and prayers.


title: Mohammed VI of Morocco

text: Mohammed has received numerous honours and decorations from various countries, some of which are listed below.


title: Naseeruddin Shah

text: Naseeruddin Shah (born 20 July 1950) is an Indian actor. He is notable in Indian parallel cinema. He has also starred in international productions. He has won numerous awards in his career, including three National Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan awards for his contributions to Indian cinema.


title: Naseeruddin Shah

text: Shah did his schooling at St. Anselm's Ajmer and St Joseph's College, Nainital. He graduated in arts from Aligarh Muslim University in 1971 and attended National School of Drama in Delhi.


title: Naseeruddin Shah

text: His elder brother, Lt. General Zameerud-din Shah (Retd.) PVSM, SM, VSM, was Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University.


title: Naseeruddin Shah

text: Shah has acted in movies such as "Nishant", "Aakrosh", "Sparsh", "Mirch Masala", "Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Ata Hai", "Trikal", "Bhavni Bhavai", "Junoon", "Mandi", "Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho!", "Ardh Satya", "Katha", and "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro". He made his debut with a small role in film Aman (1967) starring Rajendra Kumar and Saira Banu.


title: Naseeruddin Shah

text: Shah became active in mainstream Bollywood cinema with the 1980 film "Hum Paanch". In 1982, he acted in the film "Dil Aakhir Dil Hai" directed by Ismail Shroff, opposite Rakhee. One of his most important films, "Masoom", was released in 1983 and was shot at St Joseph's College, Nainital. His next major success in mainstream films was the 1986 multi-star film "Karma" where he acted alongside veteran Dilip Kumar. Starring roles for films such as "Ijaazat" (1987), "Jalwa" (1988) and "Hero Hiralal" (1989) followed. In 1988, he played opposite his wife Ratna Pathak as Inspector Ghote, the fictional detective of H. R. F. Keating's novels in the Merchant Ivory English language film "The Perfect Murder". He acted with Aditya Pancholi in films like "Maalamaal" (1988) and "Game" (1993).


title: Naseeruddin Shah

text: He has acted in several multi-star Bollywood films as well, such as "Ghulami" (1985), "Tridev" (1989) and "Vishwatma" (1992). In 1994, he acted as the villain in "Mohra", his 100th film as an actor. He forayed into Malayalam cinema the same year, through T. V. Chandran's drama "Ponthan Mada". The film portrayed the irrational bonding of a feudal serf (played by Mammootty) and a colonial landlord (played by Shah). He strongly believed that the distinction between art and commercial films had largely reduced, especially with the directors of the former also making commercial films. In 2000, Shah played Mahatma Gandhi in Kamal Haasan's "Hey Ram" which focused on the assassination of Gandhi from the assailant's point of view.


title: Naseeruddin Shah

text: Shah played Mohit, the drunken coach to a deaf and mute boy in "Iqbal". Shah was noted for his roles in the 1999 Aamir Khan-starrer "Sarfarosh", where he played Gulfam Hassan – a "ghazal" singer-cum-terrorist mastermind — and in Neeraj Pandey's "A Wednesday" (2008).