title: Minnesota Vikings

text: The Vikings have developed a heated NFC rivalry with the New Orleans Saints, who have become known as the Vikings' biggest out-of-division rival. The Vikings lead the overall series 23–13, including 4–1 in the playoffs. This rivalry has featured many notable playoff matchups, such as the 2009 NFC Championship Game and the 2017 NFC Divisional Round game.


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: The Vikings also share historical rivalries with the Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Rams, both of which became hottest in the 1970s. The Cowboys and Rams are tied for the most played playoff opponent for the Vikings, with seven playoff games played in each series. The Vikings trail their series with Dallas 18–15 overall and have lost four out of seven playoff meetings, but lead their series with the Rams 27–18–2 overall and have won five out of seven playoff meetings.


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: Vikings fans are known to dress up in "Helga hats", purple hats with white horns and blonde braids, mimicking the helmets popularly believed to have been worn by Viking warriors. The original Helga Hats are still hand assembled in the Twin Cities area.


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: During home games, the Vikings' Gjallarhorn is played during its pre-game ceremonies, a tradition that started in 2007. The ceremony has been an opportunity to honor past Viking greats (most notably Randy Moss) along with Minnesota-related folks (such as the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs men's ice hockey team when they won the NCAA hockey championship). The first horn broke right before the playing of the 2016 playoff game in Minnesota versus the Seattle Seahawks, owing to below-zero temperatures (at the time, the Vikings were playing at Huntington Bank Stadium, an outdoor stadium) that cracked it. Both the first and second horns were created by Todd Johnson, a general manager at a music store.


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: The Skol Chant is a cheer that is used in U.S. Bank Stadium for Minnesota Vikings games. It involves fans clapping their hands above their heads and yelling "Skol", in response to the beat of a drum. The chant is a modified take on the Viking War Cry used at the Iceland national football team's games and popularized by Iceland supporters at UEFA Euro 2016.


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: "Skol" (written "skål" in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish and "skál" in Faroese and Icelandic or "skaal" in archaic spellings or transliteration of any of those languages) is the Danish–Norwegian–Swedish word for "cheers" or "good health", a salute or a toast, as to an admired person or group.


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: "Italics" = played only a minor portion of their career with the Vikings, and are recognized primarily based upon achievements with other teams


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: In connection with the team's 50th anniversary, the Vikings announced a group of 50 top players on December 19, 2010. Bold indicates those elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: In 2013, in recognition of their final season at the Metrodome, the Vikings organized a fan vote to determine the best players at each position to play for the team in their time at the stadium. They named 12 players on offense, 11 on defense, four special teams players and a head coach. Bold indicates those elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: The Vikings' flagship radio station is KFXN-FM (100.3), which uses the branding "KFAN" based on its former calls on 1130 AM before a format flip between the AM and FM stations before the 2011 season; 1130 AM also continues to broadcast game play-by-play as KTLK.


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: The games are also heard on the "KFAN Radio Network" in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota, as well as many other outlets. Paul Allen has been the play-by-play announcer since the 2002 NFL season with Pete Bercich filling in as analyst, who began his first season in 2007.


title: Minnesota Vikings

text: Telecasts of preseason games not shown on national networks are aired on KMSP (Channel 9) in the Twin Cities with a simulcast of KFAN's radio broadcast while Fox Sports North shows a tape delay later.


title: Aubrey Anderson-Emmons

text: Aubrey Frances Anderson-Emmons (born 6 June 2007) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Lily Tucker-Pritchett on ABC's "Modern Family".


title: Aubrey Anderson-Emmons

text: Anderson-Emmons is the daughter of Korean American Amy Anderson and Kent Emmons, who are separated. Her mother is a stand-up comedian, actress and manager. Her father is a media entrepreneur.


title: Aubrey Anderson-Emmons

text: Anderson-Emmons does charity work for St. Jude Children's Hospital, California Covenant House Youth Shelter, Let Them Play Sports Organization, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Olive Crest, Help A Mother Out, My Stuff Bags, EIF Revlon Run/Walk For Women and Dave Thomas Foundation For Adoption.


title: Aubrey Anderson-Emmons

text: Anderson-Emmons joined the cast of "Modern Family" in its third season in 2011, when she replaced Ella and Jaden Hiller in the role of Lily Tucker-Pritchett, a Vietnamese-born child adopted by a gay American couple. Her role has been praised for raising cultural diversity awareness. In 2011, at age 4, she became the youngest person ever to receive the Screen Actors Guild Award, which she won as part of the show's ensemble cast.


title: Aubrey Anderson-Emmons

text: She was the youngest Asian American child star on the red carpet at the 2012 and 2013 Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Aubrey Anderson-Emmons

text: Anderson-Emmons has a YouTube channel, FoodMania Review, with her mother, Amy, which she began in 2015. As of June 2022, she has over 40,000 subscribers and over 4.6 million combined views.


title: Pinyin

text: Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese form, to learners already familiar with the Latin alphabet. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, but pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written in the Latin script, and is also used in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The word ' () literally means "Han language" (i.e. Chinese language), while ' () means "spelled sounds".


title: Pinyin

text: The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by a group of Chinese linguists including Zhou Youguang and was based on earlier forms of romanizations of Chinese. It was published by the Chinese Government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted pinyin as an international standard, ISO 7098, in 1982 and was followed by the United Nations in 1986. Attempts to make pinyin standard in the ROC (Taiwan) occurred in 2002 and 2009, but "today Taiwan has no standardized spelling system" so that in 2019 "alphabetic spellings in Taiwan are marked more by a lack of system than the presence of one". Moreover, "some cities, businesses, and organizations, notably in the south of Taiwan, did not accept [efforts to introduce pinyin], as it suggested that Taiwan is more closely tied to the PRC", so it remains one of several rival romanization systems in use.


title: Pinyin

text: When a foreign writing system with one set of coding and decoding systems is taken to write a language, certain compromises may have to be made. The result is that the decoding systems used in some foreign languages will enable non-native speakers to produce sounds more closely resembling the target language than will the coding and decoding systems used by other foreign languages. Native speakers of English will decode pinyin spellings to fairly close approximations of Mandarin except in the case of certain speech sounds that are not ordinarily produced by most native speakers of English: "j" /tɕ/, "q" /tɕʰ/, "x" /ɕ/, "z" /ts/, "c" /tsʰ/, "zh" /ʈʂ/, "ch" /ʈʂʰ/, "h" /x/ and "r" /ɻ/ exhibit the greatest discrepancies.


title: Pinyin

text: In this system, the correspondence between the Latin letters and the sound is sometimes idiosyncratic, though not necessarily more so than the way the Latin script is employed in other languages. For example, the aspiration distinction between "b", "d", "g" and "p", "t", "k" is similar to that of these syllable-initial consonants in English (in which the two sets are, however, also differentiated by voicing), but not to that of French. Letters "z" and "c" also have that distinction, pronounced as and (which is reminiscent of these letters being used to represent the phoneme in the German language and Slavic languages written in the Latin script, respectively). From "s, z, c" come the digraphs "sh, zh, ch" by analogy with English "sh, ch". Although this analogical use of digraphs introduces the novel combination "zh", it is internally consistent in how the two series are related. In the "x, j, q" series, the pinyin use of "x" is similar to its use in Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, Basque, and Maltese to represent ; the pinyin "q" is close to its value of in Albanian, though to the untrained ear both pinyin and Albanian pronunciations may sound similar to the "ch". Pinyin vowels are pronounced in a similar way to vowels in Romance languages.


title: Pinyin

text: The pronunciations and spellings of Chinese words are generally given in terms of initials and finals, which represent the language’s "segmental phonemic" portion, rather than letter by letter. Initials are initial consonants, whereas finals are all possible combinations of medials (semivowels coming before the vowel), a nucleus vowel, and coda (final vowel or consonant).


title: Pinyin

text: In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published "Xizi Qiji" () in Beijing. This was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, issued his "" () at Hangzhou. Neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese.


title: Pinyin

text: One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing dynasty scholar-official, Fang Yizhi (; 1611–1671).


title: Pinyin

text: The first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu (1862–1910). A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the stunning effect of the "kana" syllabaries and Western learning there. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script. While Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts.


title: Pinyin

text: The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and further improved by Herbert Giles in the Chinese–English Dictionary of 1892. It was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979.


title: Pinyin

text: In the early 1930s, Chinese Communist Party leaders trained in Moscow introduced a phonetic alphabet using Roman letters which had been developed in the Soviet Oriental Institute of Leningrad and was originally intended to improve literacy in the Russian Far East. This Sin Wenz or "New Writing" was much more linguistically sophisticated than earlier alphabets, but with the major exception that it did not indicate tones of Chinese.


title: Pinyin

text: In 1940, several thousand members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy (in characters) for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Society's new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sen's son, Sun Fo; Cai Yuanpei, the country's most prestigious educator; Tao Xingzhi, a leading educational reformer; and Lu Xun. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies (including Lincoln, Franklin, Edison, Ford, and Charlie Chaplin), some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks. In 1940, the movement reached an apex when Mao's Border Region Government declared that the Sin Wenz had the same legal status as traditional characters in government and public documents. Many educators and political leaders looked forward to the day when they would be universally accepted and completely replace Chinese characters. Opposition arose, however, because the system was less well adapted to writing regional languages, and therefore would require learning Mandarin. Sin Wenz fell into relative disuse during the following years.


title: Pinyin

text: In 1943, the U.S. military engaged Yale University to develop a romanization of Mandarin Chinese for its pilots flying over China. The resulting system is very close to pinyin, but does not use English letters in unfamiliar ways; for example, pinyin x for is written as sy in the Yale system. Medial semivowels are written with y and w (instead of pinyin i and u), and apical vowels (syllabic consonants) with r or z. Accent marks are used to indicate tone.


title: Pinyin

text: Pinyin was created by a group of Chinese linguists, including Zhou Youguang who was an economist, as part of a Chinese government project in the 1950s. Zhou, often called "the father of pinyin," worked as a banker in New York when he decided to return to China to help rebuild the country after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Mao Zedong initially considered Latinizing written Chinese, but during his first official visit to the Soviet Union in 1949 Joseph Stalin convinced him to maintain the existing writing system. Zhou became an economics professor in Shanghai, and in 1955, when China's Ministry of Education created a Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language, Premier Zhou Enlai assigned Zhou Youguang the task of developing a new romanization system, despite the fact that he was not a professional linguist.


title: Pinyin

text: Hanyu Pinyin was based on several existing systems: "Gwoyeu Romatzyh" of 1928, "Latinxua Sin Wenz" of 1931, and the diacritic markings from "zhuyin" (bopomofo). "I'm not the father of pinyin," Zhou said years later; "I'm the son of pinyin. It's [the result of] a long tradition from the later years of the Qing dynasty down to today. But we restudied the problem and revisited it and made it more perfect."


title: Pinyin

text: A draft was published on February 12, 1956. The first edition of Hanyu Pinyin was approved and adopted at the Fifth Session of the 1st National People's Congress on February 11, 1958. It was then introduced to primary schools as a way to teach Standard Chinese pronunciation and used to improve the literacy rate among adults.


title: Pinyin

text: During the height of the Cold War, the use of pinyin system over the Yale romanization outside of China was regarded as a political statement or identification with the communist Chinese regime. Beginning in the early 1980s, Western publications addressing Mainland China began using the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system instead of earlier romanization systems; this change followed the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the PRC in 1979. In 2001, the PRC Government issued the "National Common Language Law", providing a legal basis for applying pinyin. The current specification of the orthographic rules is laid down in the National Standard GB/T 16159–2012.


title: Pinyin

text: Unlike European languages, clusters of letters —initials () and finals ()— and not consonant and vowel letters, form the fundamental elements in pinyin (and most other phonetic systems used to describe the Han language). Every Mandarin syllable can be spelled with exactly one initial followed by one final, except for the special syllable "er" or when a trailing "-r" is considered part of a syllable (see below, and see erhua). The latter case, though a common practice in some sub-dialects, is rarely used in official publications.


title: Pinyin

text: Even though most initials contain a consonant, finals are not always simple vowels, especially in compound finals (), i.e. when a "medial" is placed in front of the final. For example, the medials and are pronounced with such tight openings at the beginning of a final that some native Chinese speakers (especially when singing) pronounce "yī" (, clothes, officially pronounced ) as and "wéi" (, to enclose, officially pronounced ) as or . Often these medials are treated as separate from the finals rather than as part of them; this convention is followed in the chart of finals below.


title: Pinyin

text: In each cell below, the bold letters indicate pinyin and the brackets enclose the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet.


title: Pinyin

text: The conventional lexicographical order (excluding "w" and "y"), derived from the zhuyin system ("bopomofo"), is:


title: Pinyin

text: According to "Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet", "zh", "ch", and "sh" can be abbreviated as "ẑ", "ĉ", and "ŝ" ("z", "c", "s" with a circumflex). However, the shorthands are rarely used due to difficulty of entering them on computers and are confined mainly to Esperanto keyboard layouts.


title: Pinyin

text: In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin for a standalone (no-initial) form, and the third indicates pinyin for a combination with an initial. Other than finals modified by an "-r", which are omitted, the following is an exhaustive table of all possible finals.


title: Pinyin

text: The only syllable-final consonants in Standard Chinese are "-n" and "-ng", and "-r", the last of which is attached as a grammatical suffix. A Chinese syllable ending with any other consonant either is from a non-Mandarin language (a southern Chinese language such as Cantonese, or a minority language of China; possibly reflecting final consonants in Old Chinese), or indicates the use of a non-pinyin romanization system (where final consonants may be used to indicate tones).


title: Pinyin

text: Technically, "i, u, ü" without a following vowel are finals, not medials, and therefore take the tone marks, but they are more concisely displayed as above. In addition, "ê" () and syllabic nasals "m" (, ), "n" (, ), "ng" (, ) are used as interjections.


title: Pinyin

text: According to "Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet", "ng" can be abbreviated with a shorthand of "ŋ". However, this shorthand is rarely used due to difficulty of entering them on computers.


title: Pinyin

text: An umlaut is placed over the letter "u" when it occurs after the initials "l" and "n" when necessary in order to represent the sound [y]. This is necessary in order to distinguish the front high rounded vowel in "lü" (e.g. ) from the back high rounded vowel in "lu" (e.g. ). Tonal markers are added on top of the umlaut, as in "lǘ".


title: Pinyin

text: However, the "ü" is "not" used in the other contexts where it could represent a front high rounded vowel, namely after the letters "j", "q", "x", and "y". For example, the sound of the word / (fish) is transcribed in pinyin simply as "yú", not as "yǘ". This practice is opposed to Wade–Giles, which always uses "ü", and "Tongyong Pinyin", which always uses "yu". Whereas Wade–Giles needs the umlaut to distinguish between "chü" (pinyin "ju") and "chu" (pinyin "zhu"), this ambiguity does not arise with pinyin, so the more convenient form "ju" is used instead of "jü". Genuine ambiguities only happen with "nu"/"nü" and "lu"/"lü", which are then distinguished by an umlaut.


title: Pinyin

text: Many fonts or output methods do not support an umlaut for "ü" or cannot place tone marks on top of "ü". Likewise, using "ü" in input methods is difficult because it is not present as a simple key on many keyboard layouts. For these reasons "v" is sometimes used instead by convention. For example, it is common for cellphones to use "v" instead of "ü". Additionally, some stores in China use "v" instead of "ü" in the transliteration of their names. The drawback is that there are no tone marks for the letter "v".


title: Pinyin

text: This also presents a problem in transcribing names for use on passports, affecting people with names that consist of the sound "lü" or "nü", particularly people with the surname ("Lǚ"), a fairly common surname, particularly compared to the surnames (Lù), (Lǔ), (Lú) and (Lù). Previously, the practice varied among different passport issuing offices, with some transcribing as "LV" and "NV" while others used "LU" and "NU". On 10 July 2012, the Ministry of Public Security standardized the practice to use "LYU" and "NYU" in passports.


title: Pinyin

text: Although "nüe" written as "nue", and "lüe" written as "lue" are not ambiguous, "nue" or "lue" are not correct according to the rules; "nüe" and "lüe" should be used instead. However, some Chinese input methods (e.g. Microsoft Pinyin IME) support both "nve"/"lve" (typing "v" for "ü") and "nue"/"lue".


title: Pinyin

text: Most rules given here in terms of English pronunciation are approximations, as several of these sounds do not correspond directly to sounds in English.


title: Pinyin

text: "Y" and "w" are equivalent to the semivowel medials "i, u", and "ü" (see below). They are spelled differently when there is no initial consonant in order to mark a new syllable: "fanguan" is "fan-guan", while "fangwan" is "fang-wan" (and equivalent to "*fang-uan)". With this convention, an apostrophe only needs to be used to mark an initial "a, e", or "o: Xi'an" (two syllables: ) vs. "xian" (one syllable: ). In addition, "y" and "w" are added to fully vocalic "i, u", and "ü" when these occur without an initial consonant, so that they are written "yi, wu", and "yu". Some Mandarin speakers do pronounce a or sound at the beginning of such words—that is, "yi" or , "wu" or , "yu" or ,—so this is an intuitive convention. See below for a few finals which are abbreviated after a consonant plus "w/u" or "y/i" medial: "wen" → C+"un", "wei" → C+"ui", "weng" → C+"ong", and "you" → Q+"iu".


title: Pinyin

text: The apostrophe (') () is used before a syllable starting with a vowel (, , or ) in a multiple-syllable word, unless the syllable starts the word or immediately follows a hyphen or other dash. For example, is written as Xi'an or Xī'ān, and is written as Tian'e or Tiān'é, but is written "dì-èr", without an apostrophe. This apostrophe is not used in the Taipei Metro names.


title: Pinyin

text: The pinyin system also uses diacritics to mark the four tones of Mandarin. The diacritic is placed over the letter that represents the syllable nucleus, unless that letter is missing (see below).


title: Pinyin

text: Many books printed in China use a mix of fonts, with vowels and tone marks rendered in a different font from the surrounding text, tending to give such pinyin texts a typographically ungainly appearance. This style, most likely rooted in early technical limitations, has led many to believe that pinyin's rules call for this practice, e.g. the use of a Latin alpha (ɑ) rather than the standard style (a) found in most fonts, or g often written with a single-storey ɡ. The rules of "Hanyu Pinyin", however, specify no such practice.


title: Pinyin

text: Before the advent of computers, many typewriter fonts did not contain vowels with macron or caron diacritics. Tones were thus represented by placing a tone number at the end of individual syllables. For example, "tóng" is written "tong²".


title: Pinyin

text: The number used for each tone is as the order listed above, except the neutral tone, which is either not numbered, or given the number 0 or 5, e.g. "ma⁵" for ／, an interrogative marker.


title: Pinyin

text: Briefly, the tone mark should always be placed by the order—"a, o, e, i, u, ü", with the only exception being "iu", where the tone mark is placed on the "u" instead. Pinyin tone marks appear primarily above the nucleus of the syllable, for example as in "kuài", where "k" is the initial, "u" the medial, "a" the nucleus, and "i" the coda. The exception is syllabic nasals like /m/, where the nucleus of the syllable is a consonant, the diacritic will be carried by a written dummy vowel.


title: Pinyin

text: When the nucleus is /ə/ (written "e" or "o"), and there is both a medial and a coda, the nucleus may be dropped from writing. In this case, when the coda is a consonant "n" or "ng", the only vowel left is the medial "i, u", or "ü", and so this takes the diacritic. However, when the coda is a vowel, it is the coda rather than the medial which takes the diacritic in the absence of a written nucleus. This occurs with syllables ending in "-ui" (from "wei": "wèi" → "-uì") and in "-iu" (from "you": "yòu" → "-iù"). That is, in the absence of a written nucleus the finals have priority for receiving the tone marker, as long as they are vowels: if not, the medial takes the diacritic.


title: Pinyin

text: The above can be summarized as the following table. The vowel letter taking the tone mark is indicated by the fourth-tone mark.


title: Pinyin

text: The placement of the tone marker, when more than one of the written letters "a, e, i, o", and "u" appears, can also be inferred from the nature of the vowel sound in the medial and final. The rule is that the tone marker goes on the spelled vowel that is not a (near-)semi-vowel. The exception is that, for triphthongs that are spelled with only two vowel letters, both of which are the semi-vowels, the tone marker goes on the second spelled vowel.


title: Pinyin

text: Specifically, if the spelling of a diphthong begins with "i" (as in "ia") or "u" (as in "ua"), which serves as a near-semi-vowel, this letter does not take the tone marker. Likewise, if the spelling of a diphthong ends with "o" or "u" representing a near-semi-vowel (as in "ao" or "ou"), this letter does not receive a tone marker. In a triphthong spelled with three of "a, e, i, o", and "u" (with "i" or "u" replaced by "y" or "w" at the start of a syllable), the first and third letters coincide with near-semi-vowels and hence do not receive the tone marker (as in "iao" or "uai" or "iou"). But if no letter is written to represent a triphthong's middle (non-semi-vowel) sound (as in "ui" or "iu"), then the tone marker goes on the final (second) vowel letter.


title: Pinyin

text: In addition to tone number and mark, tone color has been suggested as a visual aid for learning. Although there are no formal standards, there are a number of different color schemes in use, Dummitt's being one of the first.


title: Pinyin

text: Tone sandhi (tone change) is usually not reflected in pinyin spelling — the underlying tone (i.e. the original tone before the sandhi) is still written. However, "ABC English–Chinese, Chinese–English Dictionary" (2010) uses the following notation to indicate both the original tone and the tone after the sandhi:


title: Pinyin

text: The "Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet" lists the letters of pinyin, along with their pronunciations, as:


title: Pinyin

text: Most of the above are used to avoid ambiguity when words of more than one syllable are written in pinyin. For example, "uenian" is written as "wenyan" because it is not clear which syllables make up "uenian"; "uen-ian", "uen-i-an", "u-en-i-an", "u-e-nian", and "u-e-ni-an" are all possible combinations, but "wenyan" is unambiguous since "we", "nya", etc. do not exist in pinyin. See the pinyin table article for a summary of possible pinyin syllables (not including tones).


title: Pinyin

text: Although Chinese characters represent single syllables, Mandarin Chinese is a polysyllabic language. Spacing in pinyin is usually based on words, and not on single syllables. However, there are often ambiguities in partitioning a word.


title: Pinyin

text: "The Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography" () were put into effect in 1988 by the National Educational Commission () and the National Language Commission (). These rules became a Guóbiāo recommendation in 1996 and were updated in 2012.


title: Pinyin

text: Pinyin assigns some Latin letters sound values which are quite different from those of most languages. This has drawn some criticism as it may lead to confusion when uninformed speakers apply either native or English assumed pronunciations to words. However, this problem is not limited only to pinyin, since many languages that use the Latin alphabet natively also assign different values to the same letters. A recent study on Chinese writing and literacy concluded, "By and large, pinyin represents the Chinese sounds better than the Wade–Giles system, and does so with fewer extra marks."


title: Pinyin

text: As Pinyin is a phonetic writing system for "modern" Standard Chinese, it is not designed to replace Chinese characters for writing Literary Chinese, the standard written language prior to the early 1900s. In particular, Chinese characters retains semantic cues that helps distinguish differently pronounced words in the ancient classical language that are now homophones in Mandarin. Thus, Chinese characters remain indispensable for recording and transmitting the corpus of Chinese writing from the past.


title: Pinyin

text: Pinyin is also not designed to transcribe Chinese language varieties other than Standard Chinese, which is based on the phonological system of Beijing Mandarin. Other romanization schemes have been devised to transcribe those other Chinese varieties, such as Jyutping for Cantonese and Pe̍h-ōe-jī for Hokkien.


title: Pinyin

text: Based on ISO 7098:2015, "Information and Documentation: Chinese Romanization" (), tonal marks for pinyin should use the symbols from Combining Diacritical Marks, as opposed by the use of Spacing Modifier Letters in Bopomofo. Lowercase letters with tone marks are included in GB/T 2312 and their uppercase counterparts are included in JIS X 0212; thus Unicode includes all the common accented characters from pinyin.


title: Pinyin

text: Due to "The Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography", all accented letters are required to have both uppercase and lowercase characters as per their normal counterparts.


title: Pinyin

text: GBK has mapped two characters ‘ḿ’ and ‘ǹ’ to Private Use Areas in Unicode as U+E7C7 () and U+E7C8 () respectively, thus some Simplified Chinese fonts (e.g. SimSun) that adheres to GBK include both characters in the Private Use Areas, and some input methods (e.g. Sogou Pinyin) also outputs the Private Use Areas code point instead of the original character. As the superset GB 18030 changed the mappings of ‘ḿ’ and ‘ǹ’, this has an caused issue where the input methods and font files use different encoding standard, and thus the input and output of both characters are mixed up.


title: Pinyin

text: Other punctuation mark and symbols in Chinese are to use the equivalent symbol in English noted in to GB/T 15834.


title: Pinyin

text: In educational usage, to match the handwritten style, some fonts used a different style for the letter "a" and "g" to have an appearance of single-storey "a" and single-storey "g". Fonts that follow GB/T 2312 usually make single-storey "a" in the accented pinyin characters but leaving unaccented double-storey "a", causing a discrepancy in the font itself. Unicode did not provide an official way to encode single-storey "a" and single-storey "g", but as IPA require the differentiation of single-storey and double-storey "a" and "g", thus the single-storey character "ɑ"/"ɡ" in IPA should be used if the need to separate single-storey "a" and "g" arises. For daily usage there is no need to differentiate single-storey and double-storey "a"/"g".


title: Pinyin

text: Pinyin superseded older romanization systems such as Wade–Giles (1859; modified 1892) and postal romanization, and replaced zhuyin as the method of Chinese phonetic instruction in mainland China. The ISO adopted pinyin as the standard romanization for modern Chinese in 1982 (ISO 7098:1982, superseded by ISO 7098:2015). The United Nations followed suit in 1986. It has also been accepted by the government of Singapore, the United States's Library of Congress, the American Library Association, and many other international institutions.


title: Pinyin

text: The spelling of Chinese geographical or personal names in pinyin has become the most common way to transcribe them in English. Pinyin has also become the dominant method for entering Chinese text into computers in Mainland China, in contrast to Taiwan; where Bopomofo is most commonly used.


title: Pinyin

text: Families outside of Taiwan who speak Mandarin as a mother tongue use pinyin to help children associate characters with spoken words which they already know. Chinese families outside of Taiwan who speak some other language as their mother tongue use the system to teach children Mandarin pronunciation when they learn vocabulary in elementary school.


title: Pinyin

text: Since 1958, pinyin has been actively used in adult education as well, making it easier for formerly illiterate people to continue with self-study after a short period of pinyin literacy instruction.


title: Pinyin

text: Pinyin has become a tool for many foreigners to learn Mandarin pronunciation, and is used to explain both the grammar and spoken Mandarin coupled with Chinese characters (). Books containing both Chinese characters and pinyin are often used by foreign learners of Chinese. Pinyin's role in teaching pronunciation to foreigners and children is similar in some respects to furigana-based books (with hiragana letters written above or next to kanji, directly analogous to zhuyin) in Japanese or fully vocalised texts in Arabic ("vocalised Arabic").


title: Pinyin

text: The tone-marking diacritics are commonly omitted in popular news stories and even in scholarly works, as well as in the traditional Mainland Chinese Braille system, which is similar to pinyin, but meant for blind readers. This results in some degree of ambiguity as to which words are being represented.


title: Pinyin

text: Simple computer systems, able to display only 7-bit ASCII text (essentially the 26 Latin letters, 10 digits, and punctuation marks), long provided a convincing argument for using unaccented pinyin instead of Chinese characters. Today, however, most computer systems are able to display characters from Chinese and many other writing systems as well, and have them entered with a Latin keyboard using an input method editor. Alternatively, some PDAs, tablet computers, and digitizing tablets allow users to input characters graphically by writing with a stylus, with concurrent online handwriting recognition.


title: Pinyin

text: Pinyin with accents can be entered with the use of special keyboard layouts or various character map utilities. X keyboard extension includes a "Hanyu Pinyin (altgr)" layout for AltGr-triggered dead key input of accented characters.


title: Pinyin

text: Taiwan (Republic of China) adopted "Tongyong Pinyin", a modification of "Hanyu Pinyin", as the official romanization system on the national level between October 2002 and January 2009, when it decided to promote "Hanyu Pinyin". "Tongyong Pinyin" ("common phonetic"), a romanization system developed in Taiwan, was designed to romanize languages and dialects spoken on the island in addition to Mandarin Chinese. The Kuomintang (KMT) party resisted its adoption, preferring the "Hanyu Pinyin" system used in mainland China and in general use internationally. Romanization preferences quickly became associated with issues of national identity. Preferences split along party lines: the KMT and its affiliated parties in the pan-blue coalition supported the use of Hanyu Pinyin while the Democratic Progressive Party and its affiliated parties in the pan-green coalition favored the use of Tongyong Pinyin.


title: Pinyin

text: "Tongyong Pinyin" was made the official system in an administrative order that allowed its adoption by local governments to be voluntary. Locales in Kaohsiung, Tainan and other areas use romanizations derived from Tongyong Pinyin for some district and street names. A few localities with governments controlled by the KMT, most notably Taipei, Hsinchu, and Kinmen County, overrode the order and converted to "Hanyu Pinyin" before the January 1, 2009 national-level decision, though with a slightly different capitalization convention than mainland China. Most areas of Taiwan adopted Tongyong Pinyin, consistent with the national policy. Today, many street signs in Taiwan are using "Tongyong Pinyin"-derived romanizations, but some, especially in northern Taiwan, display "Hanyu Pinyin"-derived romanizations. It is not unusual to see spellings on street signs and buildings derived from the older Wade–Giles, MPS2 and other systems.


title: Pinyin

text: Attempts to make pinyin standard in Taiwan have had uneven success, with most place and proper names remaining unaffected, including all major cities. Personal names on Taiwanese passports honor the choices of Taiwanese citizens, who can choose Wade-Giles, Hakka, Hoklo, Tongyong, aboriginal, or pinyin. Official pinyin use is controversial, as when pinyin use for a metro line in 2017 provoked protests, despite government responses that "The romanization used on road signs and at transportation stations is intended for foreigners... Every foreigner learning Mandarin learns Hanyu pinyin, because it is the international standard...The decision has nothing to do with the nation’s self-determination or any ideologies, because the key point is to ensure that foreigners can read signs."


title: Pinyin

text: Singapore implemented "Hanyu Pinyin" as the official romanization system for Mandarin in the public sector starting in the 1980s, in conjunction with the Speak Mandarin Campaign. "Hanyu Pinyin" is also used as the romanization system to teach Mandarin Chinese at schools. While the process of Pinyinisation has been mostly successful in government communication, placenames, and businesses established in the 1980s and onward, it continues to be unpopular in some areas, most notably for personal names and vocabulary borrowed from other varieties of Chinese already established in the local vernacular. In these situations, romanization continues to be based on the Chinese language variety it originated from, especially the three largest Chinese varieties traditionally spoken in Singapore (Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese).


title: Pinyin

text: Pinyin-like systems have been devised for other variants of Chinese. Guangdong Romanization is a set of romanizations devised by the government of Guangdong province for Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka (Moiyen dialect), and Hainanese. All of these are designed to use Latin letters in a similar way to pinyin.


title: Pinyin

text: In addition, in accordance to the "Regulation of Phonetic Transcription in Hanyu Pinyin Letters of Place Names in Minority Nationality Languages" () promulgated in 1976, place names in non-Han languages like Mongolian, Uyghur, and Tibetan are also officially transcribed using pinyin in a system adopted by the State Administration of Surveying and Mapping and Geographical Names Committee known as SASM/GNC romanization. The pinyin letters (26 Roman letters, plus "ü" and "ê") are used to approximate the non-Han language in question as closely as possible. This results in spellings that are different from both the customary spelling of the place name, and the pinyin spelling of the name in Chinese:


title: Pinyin

text: "Tongyong Pinyin" was developed in Taiwan for use in rendering not only Mandarin Chinese, but other languages and dialects spoken on the island such as Taiwanese, Hakka, and aboriginal languages.


title: Reign of Terror

text: The Reign of Terror () was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety.


title: Reign of Terror

text: There is disagreement among historians over when exactly "the Terror" began. Some consider it to have begun only in 1793, giving the date as either 5 September, June or March, when the Revolutionary Tribunal came into existence. Others, however, cite the earlier time of the September Massacres in 1792, or even July 1789, when the first killing of the revolution occurred.


title: Reign of Terror

text: The term "Terror" being used to describe the period was introduced by the Thermidorian Reaction who took power after the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794, to discredit Robespierre and justify their actions. Today there is consensus amongst historians that the exceptional revolutionary measures continued after the death of Robespierre, and this subsequent period is now called the "White Terror". By then, 16,594 official death sentences had been dispensed throughout France since June 1793, of which 2,639 were in Paris alone; and an additional 10,000 died in prison, without trial, or under both of these circumstances.


title: Reign of Terror

text: There was a sense of emergency among leading politicians in France in the summer of 1793 between the widespread civil war and counter-revolution. Bertrand Barère exclaimed on 5 September 1793 in the convention: "Let's make terror the order of the day!" This quote has frequently been interpreted as the beginning of a supposed "system of Terror", an interpretation no longer retained by historians today. Under the pressure of the radical sans-culottes, the Convention agreed to institute a revolutionary army, but refused to make terror the order of the day. According to French historian Jean-Clément Martin there was no "system of terror" instated by the Convention between 1793 and 1794, despite the pressure from some of its members and the sans-culottes. The members of the convention were determined to avoid street violence such as the September Massacres of 1792 by taking violence into their own hands as an instrument of government.


title: Reign of Terror

text: What Robespierre called "terror" was the fear that the justice of exception would inspire the enemies of the Republic. He opposed the idea of terror as the order of the day, defending instead "justice" as the order of the day. In February 1794 in a speech he explains why this "terror" was necessary as a form of exceptional justice in the context of the revolutionary government:


title: Reign of Terror

text: Some historians argue that such terror was a necessary reaction to the circumstances. Others suggest there were additional causes, including ideological and emotional.


title: Reign of Terror

text: Enlightenment thought emphasized the importance of rational thinking and began challenging legal and moral foundations of society, providing the leaders of the Reign of Terror with new ideas about the role and structure of government.


title: Reign of Terror

text: Rousseau's "Social Contract" argued that each person was born with rights, and they would come together in forming a government that would then protect those rights. Under the social contract, the government was required to act for the general will, which represented the interests of everyone rather than a few factions. Drawing from the idea of a general will, Robespierre felt that the French Revolution could result in a Republic built for the general will but only once those who fought this ideal were expelled. Those who resisted the government were deemed "tyrants" fighting against the virtue and honor of the general will. The leaders felt that their ideal version of government was threatened from the inside and outside of France, and terror was the only way to preserve the dignity of the Republic created from French Revolution.


title: Reign of Terror

text: The writings of Baron de Montesquieu, another Enlightenment thinker of the time, greatly influenced Robespierre as well. Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws" defines a core principle of a democratic government: virtue—described as "the love of laws and of our country." In Robespierre's speech to the National Convention on 5 February 1794, titled "Virtue & Terror", he regards virtue as being the "fundamental principle of popular or democratic government." This was, in fact, the same virtue defined by Montesquieu almost 50 years prior. Robespierre believed that the virtue needed for any democratic government was extremely lacking in the French people. As a result, he decided to weed out those he believed could never possess this virtue. The result was a continual push towards Terror. The Convention used this as justification for the course of action to "crush the enemies of the revolution…let the laws be executed…and let liberty be saved."


title: Reign of Terror

text: At the beginning of the French Revolution, the surrounding monarchies did not show great hostility towards the rebellion. Though mostly ignored, Louis XVI was later able to find support in Leopold II of Austria (brother of Marie Antoinette) and Frederick William II of Prussia. On 27 August 1791, these foreign leaders made the Pillnitz Declaration, saying they would restore the French monarch if other European rulers joined. In response to what they viewed to be the meddling of foreign powers, France declared war on 20 April 1792. However, at this point, the war was only Prussia and Austria against France. France began this war with a series of major defeats, which set a precedent of fear of invasion in the people that would last throughout the war.


title: Reign of Terror

text: Massive reforms of military institutions, while very effective in the long run, presented the initial problems of inexperienced forces and leaders of questionable political loyalty. In the time it took for officers of merit to use their new freedoms to climb the chain of command, France suffered. Many of the early battles were definitive losses for the French. There was the constant threat of the Austro-Prussian forces which were advancing easily toward the capital, threatening to destroy Paris if the monarch was harmed. This series of defeats, coupled with militant uprisings and protests within the borders of France, pushed the government to resort to drastic measures to ensure the loyalty of every citizen, not only to France but more importantly to the Revolution.


title: Reign of Terror

text: While this series of losses was eventually broken, the reality of what might have happened if they persisted hung over France. The tide would not turn from them until September 1792 when the French won a critical victory at Valmy preventing the Austro-Prussian invasion. While the French military had stabilized and was producing victories by the time the Reign of Terror officially began, the pressure to succeed in this international struggle acted as justification for the government to pursue its actions. It was not until after the execution of Louis XVI and the annexation of the Rhineland that the other monarchies began to feel threatened enough to form the First Coalition. The Coalition, consisting of Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Holland, and Sardinia began attacking France from all directions, besieging and capturing ports and retaking ground lost to France. With so many similarities to the first days of the Revolutionary Wars for the French government, with threats on all sides, unification of the country became a top priority. As the war continued and the Reign of Terror began, leaders saw a correlation between using terror and achieving victory. Well phrased by Albert Soboul, "terror, at first an improvised response to defeat, once organized became an instrument of victory." The threat of defeat and foreign invasion may have helped spur the origins of the Terror, but the timely coincidence of the Terror with French victories added justification to its growth.


title: Reign of Terror

text: During the Reign of Terror, the sans-culottes and the Hébertists put pressure on the National Convention delegates and contributed to the overall instability of France. The National Convention was bitterly split between the Montagnards and the Girondins. The Girondins were more conservative leaders of the National Convention, while the Montagnards supported radical violence and pressures of the lower classes. Once the Montagnards gained control of the National Convention, they began demanding radical measures. Moreover, the sans-culottes, the urban workers of France, agitated leaders to inflict punishments on those who opposed the interests of the poor. The sans-culottes' violently demonstrated, pushing their demands and creating constant pressure for the Montagnards to enact reform. The sans-culottes fed the frenzy of instability and chaos by utilizing popular pressure during the Revolution. For example, the sans-culottes sent letters and petitions to the Committee of Public Safety urging them to protect their interests and rights with measures such as taxation of foodstuffs that favored workers over the rich. They advocated for arrests of those deemed to oppose reforms against those with privilege, and the more militant members would advocate pillage in order to achieve the desired equality. The resulting instability caused problems that made forming the new Republic and achieving full political support critical.


title: Reign of Terror

text: The Reign of Terror was characterized by a dramatic rejection of long-held religious authority, its hierarchical structure, and the corrupt and intolerant influence of the aristocracy and clergy. Religious elements that long stood as symbols of stability for the French people, were replaced by views on reason and scientific thought. The radical revolutionaries and their supporters desired a cultural revolution that would rid the French state of all Christian influence. This process began with the fall of the monarchy, an event that effectively defrocked the State of its sanctification by the clergy via the doctrine of Divine Right and ushered in an era of reason.


title: Reign of Terror

text: Many long-held rights and powers were stripped from the Catholic church and given to the state. In 1789, church lands were expropriated and priests killed or forced to leave France. Later in 1792, "refractory priests" were targeted and replaced with their secular counterpart from the Jacobin club. Not all religions experienced equal aggression, the Jewish community, on the contrary, received admittance into French citizenship in 1791. A Festival of Reason was held in the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was renamed "The Temple of Reason", and the old traditional calendar was replaced with a new revolutionary one. The leaders of the Terror tried to address the call for these radical, revolutionary aspirations, while at the same time trying to maintain tight control on the de-Christianization movement that was threatening to the clear majority of the still devoted Catholic population of France. Robespierre used the event as a means to combat the "moral counterrevolution" taking place among his rivals. Additionally, he hoped to stem "the monster Atheism" that was a result of the radical secularization in philosophical and social circles. The tension sparked by these conflicting objectives laid a foundation for the "justified" use of terror to achieve revolutionary ideals and rid France of the religiosity that revolutionaries believed was standing in the way.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 10 March 1793 the National Convention set up the Revolutionary Tribunal. Among those charged by the tribunal, about half were acquitted (though the number dropped to about a quarter after the enactment of the Law of 22 Prairial on 10 June 1794). In March, rebellion broke out in the Vendée in response to mass conscription, which developed into a civil war. Discontent in the Vendée lasted—according to some accounts—until after the Terror.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 6 April 1793 the National Convention established the Committee of Public Safety, which gradually became the "de facto" war-time government of France. The Committee oversaw the Reign of Terror. "During the Reign of Terror, at least 300,000 suspects were arrested; 17,000 were officially executed, and perhaps 10,000 died in prison or without trial."


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 2 June 1793 the Parisian "sans-culottes" surrounded the National Convention, calling for administrative and political purges, a fixed low price for bread, and a limitation of the electoral franchise to sans-culottes alone. With the backing of the national guard, they persuaded the convention to arrest 29 Girondist leaders. In reaction to the imprisonment of the Girondin deputies, some thirteen departments started the Federalist revolts against the National Convention in Paris, which were ultimately crushed.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 24 June 1793 the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France, the French Constitution of 1793. It was ratified by public referendum, but never put into force.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 13 July 1793 the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat—a Jacobin leader and journalist—resulted in a further increase in Jacobin political influence. Georges Danton, the leader of the August 1792 uprising against the king, was removed from the Committee of Public Safety on 10 July 1793. On 27 July 1793 Robespierre became part of the Committee of Public Safety.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 5 September the Convention formally declared by vote that "terror is the order of the day". This allowed the government to form "revolutionary armies" designed to force French citizens into compliance with Maximilian rule. These armies were also used to enforce "the law of the Maximum", which controlled the distribution and pricing of food. Addressing the Convention, Robespierre claimed that the "weight and willpower" of the people loyal to the republic would be used to oppress those who would turn "political gatherings into gladiatorial arenas". The policy change unleashed a newfound military power in France, which was used to defend against the future coalitions formed by rival nations. The event also solidified Robespierre's rise to power as president of the Committee of Public Safety earlier in July.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 9 September the convention established paramilitary forces, the "revolutionary armies", to force farmers to surrender grain demanded by the government. On 17 September, the Law of Suspects was passed, which authorized the imprisonment of vaguely defined "suspects". This created a mass overflow in the prison systems. On 29 September, the Convention extended price fixing from grain and bread to other essential goods, and also fixed wages.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 10 October the Convention decreed that "the provisional government shall be revolutionary until peace." On 16 October Marie Antoinette was executed. On 24 October the French Republican Calendar was enacted. The trial of the Girondins started on the same day; they were executed on 31 October.


title: Reign of Terror

text: Anti-clerical sentiments increased during 1793 and a campaign of dechristianization occurred. On 10 November (20 Brumaire Year II of the French Republican Calendar), the Hébertists organized a Festival of Reason.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 14 Frimaire (5 December 1793) the National Convention passed the Law of Frimaire, which gave the central government more control over the actions of the representatives on mission.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 16 Pluviôse (4 February 1794), the National Convention decreed the abolition of slavery in all of France and in French colonies.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 8 and 13 Ventôse (26 February and 3 March 1794), Saint-Just proposed decrees to confiscate the property of exiles and opponents of the revolution, known as the Ventôse Decrees.


title: Reign of Terror

text: By the end of 1793, two major factions had emerged, both threatening the Revolutionary Government: the Hébertists, who called for an intensification of the Terror and threatened insurrection, and the Dantonists, led by Georges Danton, who demanded moderation and clemency. The Committee of Public Safety took actions against both. The major Hébertists were tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal and executed on 24 March. The Dantonists were arrested on 30 March, tried on 3 to 5 April and executed on 5 April.


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 20 Prairial (8 June 1794) the Festival of the Supreme Being was celebrated across the country; this was part of the Cult of the Supreme Being, a deist national religion. On 22 Prairial (10 June), the National Convention passed a law proposed by Georges Couthon, known as the Law of 22 Prairial, which simplified the judicial process and greatly accelerated the work of the Revolutionary Tribunal. With the enactment of the law, the number of executions greatly increased, and the period from this time to the Thermidorian Reaction became known as "The Great Terror" ().


title: Reign of Terror

text: On 8 Messidor (26 June 1794), the French army won the Battle of Fleurus, which marked a turning point in France's military campaign and undermined the necessity of wartime measures and the legitimacy of the Revolutionary Government.


title: Reign of Terror

text: The fall of Robespierre was brought about by a combination of those who wanted more power for the Committee of Public Safety (and a more radical policy than he was willing to allow) and the moderates who completely opposed the revolutionary government. They had, between them, made the Law of 22 Prairial one of the charges against him, so that, after his fall, to advocate terror would be seen as adopting the policy of a convicted enemy of the republic, putting the advocate's own head at risk. Between his arrest and his execution, Robespierre may have tried to commit suicide by shooting himself, although the bullet wound he sustained, whatever its origin, only shattered his jaw. Alternatively, he may have been shot by the gendarme Merda. The great confusion that arose during the storming of the municipal Hall of Paris, where Robespierre and his friends had found refuge, makes it impossible to be sure of the wound's origin. In any case, Robespierre was guillotined the next day, together with Saint-Just, Couthon, and his brother Augustin Robespierre.


title: Reign of Terror

text: For a long time it was considered that the Terror ended on 9 Thermidor year II (27 July 1794) with the fall of Robespierre and his supporters and their execution the following day. Today historians are more nuanced. They recall that only the Law of 22 Prairial was abolished in the days following 9 Thermidor, and that the revolutionary court and the law of suspects were not abolished for many months, while executions continued.


title: Padmaavat

text: Padmaavat is a 2018 Indian period romantic action drama film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Based on the epic poem of the same name by Malik Muhammad Jayasi, it stars Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, a Rajput queen known for her beauty, wife of Maharawal Ratan Singh, played by Shahid Kapoor. Sultan Alauddin Khilji, played by Ranveer Singh, hears of her beauty and attacks her kingdom to enslave her. Aditi Rao Hydari, Jim Sarbh, Raza Murad, and Anupriya Goenka featured in supporting roles.


title: Padmaavat

text: With a production budget of – , "Padmaavat" is one of the most expensive Indian films ever made. Initially scheduled for release on 1 December 2017, "Padmaavat" faced numerous controversies. Amid violent protests, its release was indefinitely delayed. In December, the Central Board of Film Certification approved the film with few changes, which includes the addition of multiple disclaimers and a change from its original title "Padmavati". "Padmaavat" was rescheduled for release on 25 January 2018 in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D formats, making it the first Indian film to be released in IMAX 3D.


title: Padmaavat

text: Upon release, "Padmaavat" received mixed-to-positive reviews. Critics praised the visuals, cinematography and Singh's portrayal of evil Khilji, but criticized its storyline, execution, length and adherence to regressive patriarchal mores. Critics also disliked the portrayal of Khilji as a stereotypical evil Muslim king and Ratan Singh as the righteous Hindu king which led to protests by religious communities. Despite not being released in some states of India, it grossed over at the box office, becoming a commercial success and the 12th highest-grossing Indian film of all time.


title: Padmaavat

text: At the 64th Filmfare Awards, "Padmaavat" received a leading 18 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (both for Bhansali), Best Actress (Padukone) and Best Actor (Singh), and won 4 awards, including Best Actor (Critics) (Singh). It also won 3 National Film Awards, including Best Music Direction for Bhansali.


title: Padmaavat

text: In 13th-century Afghanistan, Khalji ruler, Jalal-ud-din Khalji plans to take over the throne of Delhi. His evil nephew Alauddin Khalji asks for Jalaluddin's daughter Mehrunisa's hand in marriage. Their wedding is organised, but on the night of the event, Alauddin engages in adultery with another woman. A senior courtier witnesses the act, Shareef Pasha, and is promptly killed by Alauddin. Mehrunisa is informed of this during the wedding, leaving her horrified. The wedding occurs, and Alauddin is appointed as a lead general in Jalalauddin's army.


title: Padmaavat

text: In Singhal (modern-day Sri Lanka), princess Padmavati accidentally wounds Rajput ruler of Mewar Maharawal Ratan Singh while hunting in a forest. As she treats him, he reveals that he has traveled to Sinhala to acquire rare pearls for his only wife Nagmati. Eventually, the two bond and fall in love. Ratan Singh asks for Padmavati's hand in marriage, she agrees, and with permission from her father, they are married.


title: Padmaavat

text: Jalaluddin takes over the throne of Delhi and sends Alauddin to repel a Mongol invasion. Alauddin is successful in doing so, but undertakes an unsanctioned raid on Devagiri. He captures the princess there, and makes her his concubine. Jalaluddin's wife and nephew, Itaat Khan, warn him against Alauddin's ambition to take over the throne. However, he journeys to Kara to meet Alauddin and gifts him the slave Malik Kafur. Alauddin has Jalalauddin's ministers assassinated by Malik Kafur, and Jalalauddin is killed by one of Alauddin's generals. Alauddin then returned to Delhi and declared himself the new Sultan. Over time, Alauddin and Kafur become very close, and Kafur rises to become a general in Alauddin's army.


title: Padmaavat

text: Padmavati journeys to Mewar with Ratan Singh and is blessed by his royal priest, Raghav Chetan. Chetan later intrudes into the palace secretly and spies upon an intimate moment between Ratan and Padmavati, and is subsequently banished. He then travels to Delhi and informs Alauddin of Padmavati's beauty. Alauddin, who is fixated with having anything that is exceptional, invites the Rajputs to Delhi, but his invitation is rejected. Enraged, he lays siege to Ratan Singh's capital Chittor. After six months of an unsuccessful siege, Alauddin feigns peace on account of Holi and is allowed to enter Chittor, where he meets Ratan Singh. He asks to see Padmavati; Ratan Singh grants this request, but only momentarily while preventing Alauddin from seeing her face. Ratan Singh is tricked by Khilji and is taken to Delhi as a prisoner.


title: Padmaavat

text: Upon Queen Nagmati's insistence, Padmavati agrees to see Alauddin under some conditions: she will meet Ratan first, there would be no male guardians during their meet and Chetan will be executed for his earlier treachery. Alauddin agrees; Padmavati then travels to Delhi to meet him. Meanwhile, Alauddin survives an assassination plot by his nephew, though he is wounded. When his nephew visits him recovering in bed to gloat of his victory, Alauddin awakens and kills him. The Rajputs, disguised in women's dress, plan to ambush the Khilji soldiers in the morning, at the time for morning "namāz". Padmavati, along with Chittor's generals, Gora and Badal, frees Ratan Singh, and escapes with Mehrunisa's help. Ratan confronts Alauddin, who urges Ratan to take this opportunity to kill him in his weakened state. However, Ratan refuses as this is against the Rajput creed of not attacking the wounded. The Rajput ambush goes ahead as planned, but the Khilji soldiers are alerted to it and repulse the attack, killing the Rajputs who allow the King and Queen to escape.


title: Padmaavat

text: Alauddin imprisons Mehrunisa for helping the Rajputs and marches to Chittor. He and Ratan Singh engage in a single duel; Alauddin is wounded and drops his sword, Ratan is about to kill him when Kafur takes the opportunity to mortally wound Ratan while his back is turned with arrows. While dying, he berates Alauddin and his forces for fighting dishonorably. The much larger Khilji army defeats the scattered Rajputs and captures Chittor, but are unable to capture the Rajput women who perform "jauhar" (mass suicide by immolation) along with Padmavati, rendering Alauddin's quest a failure and leaving him furious.


title: Padmaavat

text: An adaptation of Malik Muhammad Jayasi's epic "Padmavat" (1540), Sanjay Leela Bhansali had been planning a film adaptation for a decade. He first worked on a television adaptation as an assistant editor for Shyam Benegal's television series "Bharat Ek Khoj" (1988), based on Jawaharlal Nehru's "The Discovery of India" (1946), featuring an episode about "Padmavat" starring Om Puri as Alauddin Khilji. In 2008, Bhansali produced an opera version in Paris, inspiring him to begin work on a film version. "Padmaavat" also took inspiration from other earlier adaptations of the epic, including Bengali literary adaptations from Kshirode Prasad Vidyavinode in 1906 and Abanindranath Tagore in 1909, the Tamil film "Chittoor Rani Padmini" (1963), and the Hindi film "Maharani Padmini" (1964).


title: Padmaavat

text: Pre-production on the film began in July 2016. That same month, playback singer Shreya Ghoshal tweeted about performing a song composed by Bhansali for the film. Many media outlets speculated that Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, who played the leads in Bhansali's "Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela" (2013) and "Bajirao Mastani" (2015), were finalised to play Alauddin Khilji and Rani Padmavati in the film. In October 2016, it was announced that Bhansali would team up with Viacom 18 Motion Pictures to produce the film with Singh and Padukone along with Shahid Kapoor as Rawal Ratan Singh, playing the lead roles.


title: Padmaavat

text: "Padmaavat" is the third collaboration between Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone with Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The trio had worked before in "Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela" (2013) and "Bajirao Mastani" (2015), while it is Kapoor's first film with the three. Their co-star from the previous films, Priyanka Chopra was also in consideration to play the title role.


title: Padmaavat

text: Shahrukh Khan was offered the role of Rawal Ratan Singh but felt it was not "meaty" enough and declined; failure to agree on his fee may have been a factor. Shahid Kapoor was finally cast to play Ratan Singh with an assurance of a good enough part and a hefty fee. For his role, Kapoor undertook rigorous training under trainer Samir Jaura and followed a strict diet for 40 days. He also learnt sword fighting and the basics of Mardani khel, a weapon-based martial art, and admitted that it had been one of the most physically and emotionally challenging roles of his career.


title: Padmaavat

text: Ranveer Singh portrays the antagonist of the film, Alauddin Khilji, the first negative role of his career. Director Bhansali had given him books to read delving into the psyche of dark rulers of history such as Adolf Hitler, asserting that he had to completely forget who he was before he could play Khilji. Singh trained under Mustafa Ahmed to get into proper shape for the role. The actor worked out twice a day for six days a week. Playing Khilji so affected Singh's personality and behaviour that he had to see a psychiatrist to return to normal.


title: Padmaavat

text: Jaya Bachchan recommended Aditi Rao Hydari's name to Bhansali for the role of Khilji's first wife, Mehrunisa. Bhansali cast Hydari over four other choices. She is the only member of the star cast who actually belongs to a royal lineage.


title: Padmaavat

text: Veteran actor Raza Murad portrays Alauddin's paternal uncle and Khilji dynasty founder, Sultan Jalaluddin Khilji. Murad has earlier collaborated with Bhansali in "Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela" and "Bajirao Mastani". Jim Sarbh portrays Malik Kafur, a prominent eunuch slave-general of Alauddin Khilji. Sarbh learned horse-riding for the role.


title: Padmaavat

text: On 25 October 2017, a video of the first song from the film, titled "Ghoomar", was released, in which a woman dressed like a queen appeared briefly. It was later revealed in a Twitter fan page of Sanjay Leela Bhansali Productions, that the woman is Maharawal Ratan Singh's first wife, Rani Nagmati, who is portrayed by Anupriya Goenka.


title: Padmaavat

text: Due to the costs mounted on the film by delay in the release, Box Office India declared the film's budget to be , which makes it the most expensive Hindi film and one of the most expensive Indian films ever made.


title: Padmaavat

text: Delhi-based Rimple and Harpreet Narula designed Rani Padmavati's costume using traditional Gota embroidery work of Rajasthan. The border derives from the architectural details of Rajasthani palace windows and jharokhas and the odhnis have been styled in conventional ways which are still prevalent in the Mewar belt of Rajasthan. The designer duo elaborated that the costume worn by Padukone in the final scene of the film features the tree-of-life motif and twisted gota embroidery and has a Kota dupatta with block printing. Padukone's dresses were made with Sinhalese influences, as the character of Padmavati hailed from Sri Lanka.


title: Padmaavat

text: The costumes for Shahid Kapoor were made from mulmul and cotton, with special attention given to the turbans, one of which, featuring a 28-dye lehariya, was inspired by a turban to be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The clothes for Ranveer Singh were based on travellers' accounts of the Turko-Persian influence on Indian clothing (Khilji was of Turko-Afghan heritage). The costumes for Aditi Rao Hydari, who plays Khilji's first wife Mehrunisa, incorporated Turkish, Afghan, Mongol and Ottoman elements to showcase Mehrunisa's Turkic origins. For both Ranveer Singh and Hydari's costumes, extensive research was done on the clothing and textiles of the Turkish belt, from Afghanistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Kazakhstan and to the Central Asian belt around Turkey.


title: Padmaavat

text: Padukone's look for the "Ghoomar" song features intricate jewellery weighing up to 3 kg designed by Tanishq featuring a triple Borla, Mathapatti and Bajuband which are traditional ornaments worn by the Rajasthani women.


title: Padmaavat

text: Vipul Amar and Harsheen Arora of Delhi-based design house 'The V Renaissance' designed costumes for Rawal Ratan Singh and Alauddin Khilji, employing historical techniques to create the armour such as cuirboilli, sculpting, chiselling, and inlaying. The armour took a team of forty workers eight months to prepare.


title: Padmaavat

text: The film score is composed by Sanchit Balhara while the songs are composed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. A. M. Turaz and Siddharth-Garima wrote the lyrics to the songs.


title: Padmaavat

text: The first song "Ghoomar", to which Padukone performs the traditional Rajasthani folk dance on a set that replicates the interior of Chittorgarh Fort, was released on 26 October 2017. The second song from the film "Ek Dil, Ek Jaan", a love ballad featuring Padukone and Shahid Kapoor, was released on 19 November 2017. The complete soundtrack was released by the record label T-Series on 6 January 2018 in Hindi, and 12 January 2018 in Tamil and Telugu.


title: Padmaavat

text: The film became controversial during production. Several Rajput caste organisations including Shri Rajput Karni Sena and its members had protested and later vandalised the film sets claiming that the film portrays the Padmavati, a Rajput queen, in bad light. They had also assaulted Bhansali on a film set. The Sena had made further threats of violence. While filming a scene in Masai Plateau, Kolhapur at night in October 2017, some people attacked and set the set ablaze, injuring animals and destroying several costumes. Several Muslim leaders protested against the alleged misrepresentation of Ala-ud-din Khilji and called for a ban. In the days leading up to the film's release, there were violent protests and riots in several parts of India. In Haryana, the protestors had attacked several vehicles including a school bus.


title: Padmaavat

text: Bhansali and Deepika Padukone had received threats of violence and death. The film makers received support from the film community and industry associations including the Indian Film & Television Directors' Association, Cine & TV Artists Association, Western India Cinematographers' Association, Association of Cine & Television Art Directors & Costume Designers.


title: Padmaavat

text: The major political parties across India took conflicting stands. Several members and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for a ban on the film. The Rajasthan State unit of the Indian National Congress (INC) had also called for ban.


title: Padmaavat

text: The controversies surrounding the film re-opened the question of film censorship in India and the country's freedom of expression. The Supreme Court dismissed a petition calling to stop the film's release citing the freedom of speech and expression.


title: Padmaavat

text: The movie is banned in Malaysia by the Home Ministry due to its negative portrayal of a Muslim ruler and for touching its sensitivities of Islam since Malaysia is predominantly a Muslim nation.


title: Padmaavat

text: The digital streaming rights of "Padmaavat" were sold to Amazon Prime Video for 200–250 million in August 2017. Theatrical distribution rights in overseas territories were acquired by Paramount Pictures from Viacom 18 in October. Prime Focus Limited rendered the film in 3D. The film was initially scheduled for theatrical release on 1 December 2017 in India, but was delayed due to protests.


title: Padmaavat

text: "Padmavati" was initially slated for release in the United Arab Emirates on 30 November 2017 and in the United Kingdom on 1 December 2017 but the makers stated that the film would not be released in foreign territories before receiving a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). In the end of December, CBFC approved the film for theatrical exhibition and suggested 5 modifications to the film, which includes the addition of multiple disclaimers and amending its title to "Padmaavat". The change in the title was intended to be a disclaimer that the film is not a historical drama, but a cinematic adaptation of Malik Muhammad Jayasi's epic poem "Padmavat".


title: Padmaavat

text: Post the CBFC approval with U/A certification, the film got banned by the Chief Ministers of four states Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana in order to maintain 'law and order' and avert protests in their states. The Supreme Court of India over-ruled the ban, stating that freedom of speech is to be maintained and that the states have to ensure the screening of the film without any issues. On 30 January 2018, Malaysia banned the film.


title: Padmaavat

text: Padmaavat premiered on television on 30 September 2018 on Hindi general entertainment channels (GEC) Colors, Colors HD, Hindi movie channel Rishtey Cineplex. The film was dubbed and released in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada languages under the same title.


title: Padmaavat

text: Due to the numerous controversies associated with "Padmaavat" before its release which resulted in banning the film in certain states, the film's commercial performance was highly unpredictable. The film was released in only 70% of places in India. However, despite limited screenings, the film earned an estimated in Wednesday paid previews. The following day, the film opened nationwide across 4,800 screens of which over 500 screens were shown in Tamil and Telugu. It earned an estimated nett on its opening day in India, excluding previews, which was considered impressive despite its ban in numerous big states and marked a career best opening for Ranveer Singh, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Shahid Kapoor and fourth biggest for Padukone (behind "Happy New Year", "Chennai Express" and "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani"). On Friday, the film added another , owing to national holiday on Republic Day. This was followed by a gradual fall on Saturday taking in another . Through Sunday, the film delivered an opening weekend of and became the fourteenth film to enter the 100 crore club in just under 4 days. Furthermore, it broke the record for the biggest IMAX opening in India with US$461,000 from 12 screens. However, due to its limited screenings, the film nevertheless lost over in box office receipts during its opening weekend.


title: Padmaavat

text: Outside India, the film broke all-time opening day records in Australia (A$367,984), surpassing the likes of "Dangal" and the dubbed-Hindi version of "". One of the reason behind the film's successful run in the country was because Paramount (the overseas distributing company) was able to secure release in all three major theatre chains (Hoyts, Event Cinemas and Village Cinemas) unlike other Bollywood films which have to choose between the two latter. In the United States and Canada, the film grossed $1.13 million on its opening day. This was followed by the biggest ever single-day for a Hindi film with $1.8 million on Saturday, breaking the previous record held by "PK" ($1.41 million). Although "" still


title: Padmaavat

text: holds the record for all Indian films, that is inclusive of three different languages. It went on to set a new opening weekend record for a Hindi film with $4.2 million, and witnessed the second best per-theatre-average inside the top 10 with $13,188 from 324 theatres. As of 6 February 2018, the film has crossed worldwide, making it one of the top 10 highest-grossing Bollywood films of all time. Its domestic net income was in the fourth weekend of its run. The film has grossed worldwide.


title: Padmaavat

text: "Padmaavat" opened to mixed critical reviews upon release. Critics praised the visuals, and the performance of Singh, but criticised its storyline, execution, running time and the "unwanted" 3D conversion.


title: Padmaavat

text: Following its controversies, the makers held a pre-screening of "Padmaavat" in November 2017 for some journalists, including Arnab Goswami and Rajat Sharma, who praised the film and described it as "the greatest tribute to Rajput pride." Rajat Sharma particularly praised Singh's performance as Khilji.


title: Padmaavat

text: Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave 4.5 stars and said, "On the whole, "Padmaavat" is a remarkable motion picture experience that's backed by proficient direction, spellbinding screenwriting and superlative acting. For Bhansali, it's the best title on an impressive filmography." Neil Soans of "The Times of India" gave 4 stars and said, "The director's expertise in heightening opulence and grandeur is well-known, further distinguishable in 3D. Cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee compliments him by beautifully capturing some jaw-dropping scenery." Rachit Gupta of "Filmfare" gave 3.5 stars and said, "the real wonder of Padmaavat comes from its production and presentation. This film has phenomenal production design, costumes and camera work. The technical finesse on display is just mind boggling." Rajeev Masand of News18 gave 3.5 stars, praising Singh's performance.


title: Padmaavat

text: Kunal Guha of "Mumbai Mirror" gave 3.5 stars but criticised Padukone's and Kapoor 's performances. Giving 3.5 stars, Sushant Mehta of "India Today" panned Padukone's and Kapoor's performances calling them "mediocre" while terming Singh's "unconvincing".


title: Padmaavat

text: Anupama Chopra of Film Companion gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and said, "I clinically admired each frame. I applauded the work of cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee, costume designers Harpreet-Rimple, Maxima Basu, Chandrakant & Ajay, and production designers Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray. But I wasn't seduced by the story telling." Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" gave 2.5 stars and said, ""Padmaavat" is spectacular [to look]: no one can do spectacle like Bhansali. You can easily delight in it while the going is good. But nearly three hours of it, and looping rhetoric around what constitutes Rajput valour can and does become tiresome." Mayur Sanap of "Deccan Chronicle" criticised the execution and the length and gave 2.5 stars. Suparna Sharma, also of "Deccan Chronicle" gave 2.5 stars and said, "Padmaavat is offensively chauvinistic, blatantly right-wing, and quite unabashedly anti-Muslim".


title: Padmaavat

text: Raja Sen of NDTV India gave 1.5 stars and said, "Bhansali takes an unbearable length of time to spark the flame. Things go on and on and on, with characters it is impossible to care about. They may appear attractive from time to time, certainly, but these protagonists are inconsistent, infuriating and test the patience."


title: Padmaavat

text: Rediff.com also gave 1.5 stars calling it "superficial" and wrote, "Deepika Padukone gets an absolute raw deal as the Queen; her performance is submissively overwrought, blandly weighted, and her speeches combined with the leisureliness of the narrative's pacing, can put you in a stupor. Worst of all, you will be driven by the suspicion if Padukone even does enough to deserve the movie's title." Namrata Joshi of "The Hindu" gave a negative review noting the film is "a yawn fest" and "an interminable expanse of unadulterated dullness." She also criticised the 3D conversion writing, "The opulence doesn't seem as awe-inspiring, the special effects, especially in some of the battle scenes, are plain tacky and the actors seem like cardboard dolls of themselves in the long shots, acquiring a human visage only in the extreme". Anna M. M. Vetticad of "Firstpost" criticised the film giving 1 star out of 5 writing "Padmaavat is a perfect example of a Hindi film couching its extreme prejudices in grandiloquence and tacky clichés, with those clichés embedded in resplendent frames."


title: Padmaavat

text: Reviewing the Tamil dubbed version, "IndiaGlitz" who gave a rating of 3.5 out of 5, stated that "When lust meets honor; its always the good that prevails." "Behindwoods" gave 3 out of 5 stars stating that "The high moments might be a few, yet Padmaavat is richly deserving of its acclaim."


title: Padmaavat

text: Regarding the Telugu version, Venkat Arikatla of "Great Andhra" gave the film's rating 2.75 out of 5 stating that "Probably, that is the biggest problem of Bhansali's Padmaavat. It seems disinterested in exploring the grandiose that a film of such magnitude promises or the makers were so caught up in characterization, that they have lost out on giving the period drama the treatment it truly deserved." Indiaglitz gave 3 out of 5 stars stating that "Nuanced screenplay, dialogues that come with depth, amazing Ranveer and the visuals make the first half a mind-blowing experience. The second half is plain for the most part. Don't expect the war sequences to amaze you."


title: Padmaavat

text: Regarding the Kannada dubbed version, "Indiaglitz" gave 3 out of 5 and also wrote "Nuanced screenplay, dialogues that come with depth, amazing Ranveer and the visuals make the first half a mind-blowing experience. The second half is plain for the most part. Don't expect the war sequences to amaze you."


title: Padmaavat

text: Mike McCahill of "The Guardian" gave 4 stars and said, "It's not just the extravagance that catches the eye, but the precision with which it's applied. Every twirl of every sari and every arrow in every battle appears to have been guided by the hands of angels. Such excess could have proved deadening, but dynamic deployment of old-school star power keeps almost all its scenes alive with internal tensions." Shilpa Jamkhandikar published a mixed review in Reuters, who noted, "But unlike Bhansali's earlier films, where he was able to find emotional depth even in opulent historical romances, this one falls short". But she praised Ranveer Singh's performance as Khilji. Manjusha Radhakrishnan of "Gulf News" opined that the quality of the work was lower than that in other Bhansali films. Sadaf Haider of "DAWN Images" said that the film is "a flawed history lesson", however, she praised the film visual, music and most of the act. Rahul Aijaz of "The Express Tribune" rated 4.5 out of 5 stars; he too praised the film and said that it "doesn't set up false expectations and then disappoint" due to "perfect storytelling", and "memorable performances". A Pakistani critic, Haroon Khalid, had disliked the portrayal of Khilji as a stereotypical evil Muslim king and Ratan Singh as the righteous Hindu king.


title: Padmaavat

text: In the film, the Delhi Sultanate's flag is shown in black colour with a white crescent moon. The Sultanate actually had a green flag with a black band running vertically on the left. Most historians believe little evidence exists for Padmavati in real life. And, in the original "Padmavat" poem written by Malik Muhammad Jayasi, Khilji never had direct confrontation with Raja Ratansen.


title: Padmaavat

text: Before their ascension to the throne, Jalaluddin and Alauddin Khilji were known as Malik Feroze and Ali Gurshasp, respectively.


title: Padmaavat

text: Jalaluddin Khilji is portrayed as an arrogant, cunning and cruel man, though he was actually popular for being a mild-mannered, humble, and pious ruler. Jalaluddin ascended the throne of Delhi in 1290 only to end the chaos that ensued after the death of Sultan Ghiyas ud din Balban. He was not ambitious by nature and did not lead an attack on the Delhi Sultanate from Ghazni, Afghanistan.


title: Padmaavat

text: The portrayal of Alauddin Khilji in the film has been criticised by historians and critics for its historical and geographical inaccuracies and not staying faithful to the epic "Padmavat". The film shows an unsuccessful assassination plot by Alauddin's nephew, one which seriously injures the Sultan, but none of this actually happened. Historian Rana Safvi wrote that Khilji was sophisticated, not barbarian as portrayed in the film. Historian Mohammed Safiullah also criticised Khilji's portrayal and the implicit depiction of a homosexual relationship between Khilji and his slave-general Malik Kafur. Historian Archana Ojha of Delhi University criticised Alauddin Khilji's look and clothing in the film.


title: The Divergent Series

text: The Divergent Series is a feature film series based on the "Divergent" novels by the American author Veronica Roth. Distributed by Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate Films, the series consists of three science fiction action films set in a dystopian society: "Divergent", "", and "". They have been produced by Lucy Fisher, Pouya Shabazian, and Douglas Wick.


title: The Divergent Series

text: The series stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James as lead characters Beatrice Prior (Tris) and Tobias Eaton (Four), respectively. The supporting cast includes Ansel Elgort, Zoë Kravitz, and Miles Teller. Kate Winslet played the main antagonist in the first two films. The first film in the series was directed by Neil Burger, while the second and third films were directed by Robert Schwentke.


title: The Divergent Series

text: The Veronica Roth novels consist primarily of the trilogy of "Divergent", "Insurgent", and "Allegiant". Development began in 2011 following Summit's acquisition of the film rights to the "Divergent" novel in partnership with production company Red Wagon Entertainment. The studios announced production on the sequel following the first film's strong performance in Thursday late-night screenings, where it grossed $4.9 million. They acquired film rights to the "Allegiant" novel in December 2013, deciding in April 2014 to split the third novel into a two-part film adaptation.


title: The Divergent Series

text: The first installment, "Divergent" (2014), grossed over $288 million worldwide, while the second installment, "Insurgent" (2015), grossed over $297 million worldwide. "Insurgent" was also the first "Divergent" film to be released in IMAX 3D. The third installment, "Allegiant" (2016), grossed $179 million. Thus, the first three films of the series have grossed over $765 million worldwide.


title: The Divergent Series

text: In March 2011, Summit Entertainment picked up the rights for "Divergent" with Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher's production company Red Wagon Entertainment, while Lionsgate distributes the franchise. Neil Burger was announced as the director on August 23, 2012. Evan Daugherty, who co-wrote the screenplay with Vanessa Taylor, said, "I get hung up on the toughness of the movie but of equal importance is the love story between Tris and Four. It's inherently and inextricably linked to Tris' character journey. There will be plenty of sexual tension and chemistry, but it's important that all of that stuff doesn't just feel like it's thrown in, but that it all helps Tris grow as a character."


title: The Divergent Series

text: Daugherty further added, "It's tricky because the book is a very packed read with a lot of big ideas. So, distilling that into a cool, faithful two-hour movie is challenging. Not only do you have to establish five factions, but you have to acknowledge that there's a sixth entity, which is the divergent, and you also have the factionless. So there's a world that really has to be built out for the big screen… the movie is going to do it a little more efficiently." Author Veronica Roth said about script of the film, "Reading a script is a really interesting experience. I'd never read a script before. I was really impressed by how closely it stuck to the general plotline of the book."


title: The Divergent Series

text: Initially, the budget of the film was $40 million but later Lionsgate increased it to $80 million (which finally changed to $85 million) due to the success of "The Hunger Games". Analyst Ben Mogil said, ""Divergent" is more similar to "Hunger Games" in that the company owns the underlying economics (i.e. production) and the budget (at $80[million]) is more manageable."


title: The Divergent Series

text: In December 2013, Summit Entertainment announced that a film adaptation of "Insurgent", the second novel in the "Divergent" trilogy, would be released as "The Divergent Series: Insurgent" on March 20, 2015, as a sequel to the film adaptation of "Divergent" with Brian Duffield originally chosen to write the script for the film. On December 16, 2013, it was announced that Neil Burger, director of "Divergent", would not return to direct "Insurgent" as he was still working on the first film. On February 13, 2014, it was announced that Robert Schwentke was offered the director position for the film, and Akiva Goldsman hired to re-write Duffield's script.


title: The Divergent Series

text: Also in December 2013, Summit Entertainment announced that the film adaptation of "Allegiant", the third and final novel in the "Divergent" trilogy, would be released in March 2016, serving as the finale of the series, which at the time was planned as a trilogy, but on April 11, 2014, the studio decided to split the novel into a two-part film, much the like the "Harry Potter", "Twilight", and "Hunger Games" franchises did with the finales of their series. Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger said in a statement that, "Veronica Roth brings her captivating story to a masterful conclusion in 'Allegiant,' a rich, action-packed book with material that is ideally suited to two strong and fulfilling movies. The storytelling arc and world of the characters lend themselves perfectly to two films, a storytelling strategy that has worked very well for us on the two "Twilight Breaking Dawn" films and about which we're tremendously enthusiastic for the two upcoming "Mockingjay" films of "The Hunger Games" franchise". Noah Oppenheim was announced as the screenwriter for the first part of the "Allegiant" adaptation on July 9, 2014. On December 5, 2014, it was announced that Robert Schwentke will return to direct "Part 1". On September 10, 2015, it was announced that the two films would be re-titled, with "Part 1" being renamed as "The Divergent Series: Allegiant" and "Part 2" as "The Divergent Series: Ascendant".


title: The Divergent Series

text: On October 22, 2012, it was announced that Shailene Woodley had landed the lead role of Beatrice "Tris" Prior. Lucas Till, Jack Reynor, Jeremy Irvine, Alex Pettyfer, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Ludwig and Luke Bracey were all considered for the role of Tobias "Four" Eaton. On March 15, 2013, it was announced that Theo James had been cast as Four.


title: The Divergent Series

text: Though James was 10 years older than the character when cast, Roth praised his casting "I was sure within seconds: this was 'Four', no question. Theo is able to capture 'Four's' authority and strength, as well as his depth and sensitivity." She also mentions the chemistry between him and Shailene: "He is a perfect match for Shailene's incredibly strong presence as Tris. I'm thrilled!" The producers said about his casting: "We took our time to find the right actor to fill the role of Four, and Theo is definitely the perfect fit. Veronica has crafted a truly iconic character in Four and we cannot wait to begin production and bring him and this story to life for millions of fans around the world."


title: The Divergent Series

text: Lucy Fisher, Douglas Wick, and Pouya Shabazian have been producers for all films in the series. Veronica Roth and Neil Burger have acted as executive producers on the first two films. Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate collaborated on all three films. On April 11, 2014, the studio decided to split the final book, "Allegiant", into two parts, much like "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Parts 1" and "2", "" and "", and "" and "".


title: The Divergent Series

text: Neil Burger directed the first film, "Divergent", and was originally going to direct the sequel, "The Divergent Series: Insurgent", but in December 2013 it was announced that Burger would not return, due to him still working on post-production work for the first film. Speaking on the subject the director stated, "There was no breathing room. They were like, 'We're holding to a March 2015 release date, and we have to start no later than May 2014.' It was a recipe for failure, at least with me on board. I wouldn't be able to do either thing right. I reluctantly let it go". In February 2014, it was confirmed that Robert Schwentke would direct the sequel instead. On December 5, 2014, it was announced that Schwentke would return for "The Divergent Series: Allegiant".


title: The Divergent Series

text: "Snow White and the Huntsman" screenwriter Evan Daugherty and "Hope Springs" screenwriter Vanessa Taylor co-wrote the screenplay for "Divergent". During the time that Neil Burger was originally going to direct the sequel, Brian Duffield was recruited to write the screenplay for "The Divergent Series: Insurgent", but after Burger dropped out of the film and Robert Schwentke took over as director, he brought in Akiva Goldsman and Mark Bomback to rewrite Duffield's script.


title: The Divergent Series

text: The two-part finale screenplay, "The Divergent Series: Allegiant" and "Ascendant", was written by Noah Oppenheim, Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, and Stephen Chbosky.


title: The Divergent Series

text: On March 11, 2013, it was announced that the roles of Tori, Christina, and Caleb had gone to Maggie Q, Zoë Kravitz, and Ansel Elgort, respectively. Ray Stevenson, Jai Courtney and Aaron Eckhart were announced to be in talks to join the cast on March 15, 2013, Stevenson and Courtney joined the cast as Marcus Eaton and Eric, respectively. That same day, Miles Teller was cast as Peter. The studio's announcement included a bit of casting news: Mekhi Phifer will play Dauntless leader Max. Kate Winslet was announced to be in talks on January 24, 2013. Later it was confirmed that she would portray Jeanine Matthews.


title: The Divergent Series

text: Talking about playing the negative character for the first time, Winslet said, "I'm no idiot. The idea went through my head that I have never played a baddie before, I was almost kind of surprised." Since Winslet joined the filming late, she used that distance from her co-stars to appear aloof on the first day of her shoot. "I wanted to break it and say, 'It's OK, I'm really fun. I promise.' But I thought, just for today, I'd let them think that I am a complete bitch." On March 25, 2013, Ben Lamb was cast as Edward, Ben Lloyd-Hughes as Will, and Christian Madsen as Al. In April 2013, Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn joined the cast as Natalie and Andrew Prior, Beatrice's parents.


title: The Divergent Series

text: In 2014, the cast for the second film was announced. On May 12, 2014, it was announced that Octavia Spencer joined the cast as Amity representative Johanna Reyes. Late May 2014, Suki Waterhouse and Jonny Weston were cast as Marlene and Edgar respectively. Early June 2014, Stephanie Leigh Schlund announced that she was cast in the film as a member of the Amity, and Naomi Watts and Daniel Dae Kim joined the cast as Evelyn Johnson and Jack Kang. On June 9, 2014, Rosa Salazar joined the cast as Lynn. On June 10, 2014, Australian actor Keiynan Lonsdale joined the cast as Uriah. On June 11, 2014, Emjay Anthony joined the cast as Hector.


title: The Divergent Series

text: On April 28, 2015, it was reported that Golden Globe nominee Jeff Daniels joined the cast for "Allegiant" as David, the leader of the Bureau of Genetic Welfare. On May 1, 2015, it was announced that Bill Skarsgård had joined the cast as Matthew.


title: The Divergent Series

text: Principal photography of "Divergent" began on April 16, 2013, and concluded on July 16, 2013. Almost all of the filming took place in Chicago with reshoots taking place from January 24–26, 2014, in Los Angeles.