title: Polo

text: The polo mallet consists of a cane shaft with a rubber-wrapped grip, a webbed thong, called a sling, for wrapping around the thumb, and a wooden cigar-shaped head. The shaft is made of manau-cane (not bamboo, which is hollow) although a small number of mallets today are made from composite materials. Composite materials are usually not preferred by top players because the shaft of composite mallets can't absorb vibrations as well as traditional cane mallets. The mallet head is generally made from a hardwood called tipa, approximately 9" inches long. The mallet head weighs from to , depending on player preference and the type of wood used, and the shaft can vary in weight and flexibility depending on the player's preference. The weight of the mallet head is of important consideration for the more seasoned players. Female players often use lighter mallets than male players. For some polo players, the length of the mallet depends on the size of the horse: the taller the horse, the longer the mallet. However, some players prefer to use a single length of mallet regardless of the height of the horse. Either way, playing horses of differing heights requires some adjustment by the rider. Variable lengths of the mallet typically range from to . The term "mallet" is used exclusively in US English; British English prefers the term "polo stick". The ball is struck with the broad sides of the mallet head rather than its round and flat tips.


title: Polo

text: Polo saddles are English-style, close contact, similar to jumping saddles; although most polo saddles lack a flap under the billets. Some players will not use a saddle blanket. The saddle has a flat seat and no knee support; the rider adopting a forward-leaning seat and closed knees dissimilar to a classical dressage seat. A breastplate is added, usually attached to the front billet. A standing martingale must be used: so, a breastplate is a necessity for safety. The tie-down is usually supported by a neck strap. Many saddles also have an overgirth. The stirrup irons are heavier than most, and the stirrup leathers are wider and thicker, for added safety when the player stands in the stirrups. The legs of the pony are wrapped with polo wraps from below the knee to the fetlock to minimize pain. Jumping (open front) or gallop boots are sometimes used along with the polo wraps for added protection. Often, these wraps match the team colours. The pony's mane is most often roached (hogged), and its tail is docked or braided so that it will not snag the rider's mallet.


title: Polo

text: Polo is ridden with double reins for greater accuracy of signals. The bit is frequently a gag bit or Pelham bit. In both cases, the gag or shank rein will be the bottom rein in the rider's hands, while the snaffle rein will be the top rein. If a gag bit is used, there will be a drop noseband in addition to the cavesson, supporting the tie-down. One of the rein sets may alternately be draw reins.


title: Polo

text: The playing field is , the area of approximately six soccer fields or nine American football fields (10 acres), while arena polo is 96 x 46 metres. The playing field is carefully maintained with closely mowed turf providing a safe, fast playing surface. Goals are posts which are set eight yards apart, centred at each end of the field. The surface of a polo field requires careful and constant grounds maintenance to keep the surface in good playing condition. During half-time of a match, spectators are invited to go onto the field to participate in a polo tradition called "divot stamping", which was developed not only to help replace the mounds of earth (divots) that are torn up by the horses' hooves, but also to afford spectators the opportunity to walk about and socialise.


title: Polo

text: Polo is played professionally in many countries, notably Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Iran, India, New Zealand, Mexico, Pakistan, Jamaica, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and is now an active sport in 77 countries. Although its tenure as an Olympic sport was limited to 1900–1939, in 1998 the International Olympic Committee recognised it as a sport with a bona fide international governing body, the Federation of International Polo. The World Polo Championship is held every three years by the Federation.


title: Polo

text: Polo is unique among team sports in that amateur players, often the team patrons, routinely hire and play alongside the sport's top professionals.


title: Polo

text: Some of the most important tournaments, at club level, are Abierto de Tortugas, Abierto de Hurlingham and Abierto Argentino de Polo, all of them in Argentina (la "Triple Corona").


title: Polo

text: Polo has been played in Malaysia and Singapore, both of which are former British colonies, since being introduced to Malaya during the late 19th century. Royal Johor Polo Club was formed in 1884 and Singapore Polo Club was formed in 1886. The oldest polo club in the modern country of Malaysia is Selangor Polo Club, founded in 1902. It was largely played by royalty and the political and business elite.


title: Polo

text: Polo was played at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games, 2017 Southeast Asian Games and 2019 Southeast Asian Games. Nations that competed in the tournament were Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines (2007), Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand (2017) and Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines and Malaysia (2019). The 2007 tournament's gold medal was won by the Malaysian team, followed by Singapore with silver and Thailand with bronze while the 2017 tournament's gold medal was won by Malaysia, followed by Thailand with silver and Brunei with bronze. The 2019 tournament's gold medal was won by Malaysia, followed by the Philippines with silver, and Brunei receiving bronze.


title: Polo

text: The recent resurgence in south-east Asia has resulted in its popularity in cities such as Pattaya, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. In Pattaya alone, there are three active polo clubs: Polo Escape, Siam Polo Park and the Thai Polo and Equestrian Club. Indonesia has a polo club (Nusantara Polo Club). More recently, Janek Gazecki and Australian professional Jack "Ruki" Baillieu have organised polo matches in parks "around metropolitan Australia, backed by wealthy sponsors."


title: Polo

text: A Chinese Equestrian Association has been formed with two new clubs in China itself: the Beijing Sunny Time Polo Club, founded by Xia Yang in 2004 and the Nine Dragons Hill Polo Club in Shanghai, founded in 2005.


title: Polo

text: Polo is not widely spread in West Asia, but still counts five active clubs in Iran, four active polo clubs in the UAE, one club in Bahrain and The Royal Jordanian Polo Club in Amman, Jordan.


title: Polo

text: Polo in Iran is governed by the Polo Federation of Iran. There are five polo clubs in Iran: Ghasr-e Firoozeh, Nowroozabad, Army Ground Forces, Kanoon-e Chogan and Nesf-e Jahan. Iran possesses some of the best grass polo fields in the region. The country currently has over 100 registered players of which approximately 15% are women. Historically, Kurdish and Persian Arabian horses were the most widely used for polo. This was probably also the case in ancient times. Today Thoroughbreds are being increasingly used alongside the Kurdish and Persian Arabian horses. Some players have also been experimenting with Anglo-Arabians. Iranians still refer to the game of polo by its original Persian name of "Chogan", which means mallet. Iranians still maintain some of the ancient rituals of the game in official polo matches.


title: Polo

text: Polo first began its Irish history in 1870 with the first official game played on Gormanstown Strand, Co. Meath. Three years later the All Ireland Polo Club was founded by Mr. Horace Rochford in the Phoenix Park. Since then the sport has continued to grow with a further seven clubs opening around the country. The sport has also been made more accessible by these clubs by the creation of more affordable training programmes, such as the beginner to pro programme at Polo Wicklow.


title: Polo

text: The annual Shandur Polo Festival at Shandur Top in Chitral District is an international event attended by enthusiasts from all over the world. The Shandur polo ground at Shandur Pass is the world's highest, at approximately . The governing body of polo in Pakistan is the Pakistan Polo Association. There are more than twenty-one polo clubs in Pakistan and over forty polo championships held all over the country every year. Pakistan has qualified for the preliminary rounds of the World Polo Championship three times. Pakistan's Hissam Ali Haider is the highest capped played in the Asian circuit. He has played for Cartier in the St. Moritz Snow Polo World Cup and the Commonwealth team in the Royal Salute Coronation Cup, both of which were won by his team.


title: Polo

text: The governing body in the United Kingdom is the Hurlingham Polo Association, dating from 1875, which amalgamated with the County Polo Association in 1949. The UK Armed Forces Polo Association oversees the sport in the three armed services.


title: Polo

text: The United States Polo Association (USPA) is the governing body for polo in the U.S. The U.S. is the only country that has separate women's polo, run by the United States Women's Polo Federation.


title: Polo

text: These variants are considered sports separate from standard polo because of the differences in the composition of teams, equipment, rules, game facilities, and so on.


title: Polo

text: Variant forms of arena polo include beach polo, played in many countries between teams of three riders on a sand surface, and cowboy polo, played almost exclusively in the western United States by teams of five riders on a dirt surface.


title: Polo

text: Another modern variant is snow polo, which is played on compacted snow on flat ground or a frozen lake. The format of snow polo varies depending on the space available. Each team generally consists of three players and a bright coloured light plastic ball is preferred. Snow polo is not the same sport as ice polo, which was popular in the US in the late 1890s. That sport resembled ice hockey and bandy but died out entirely in favour of the Canadian ice hockey rules.


title: Polo

text: Water polo shares a name with polo, but more closely resembles handball. , the polo variety discussed above, is arguably a version of polo though it can also be seen as the precursor of modern outdoor polo.


title: Polo

text: Polo is not played exclusively on horseback. Such polo variants are mostly played for recreational or tourism purposes.


title: Polo

text: A lighthearted variant, hobby horse polo (), was devised in 1998 in south western Germany. The Polo-Club in Mannheim was founded in 2002 to organise matches and promote the game. Since then, the variant has gained further interest in other German cities. It is played on hobby horses, the toy, instead of polo ponies. While following standard polo rules in part, it has some more unusual rules: Goals, for example, are the height and width of bar stools; and any departure from accepted gameplay standards will attract "penalty sherries" to be consumed by the offending player.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ability. The idea of shape-shifting is in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existent literature and epic poems such as the "Epic of Gilgamesh" and the "Iliad". The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy, children's literature and popular culture.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Popular shape-shifting creatures in folklore are werewolves and vampires (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), ichchadhari naag and ichchadhari naagin (shape-shifting cobras) of India, the huli jing of East Asia (including the Japanese "kitsune" and Korean "kumiho"), and the gods, goddesses, and demons and demonesses like succubus and incubus and other numerous mythologies, such as the Norse Loki or the Greek Proteus. Shape-shifting to the form of a gray wolf is specifically known as lycanthropy, and such creatures who undergo such change are called lycanthropes. Therianthropy is the more general term for human-animal shifts, but it is rarely used in that capacity. It was also common for deities to transform mortals into animals and plants.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Other terms for shapeshifters include metamorph, the Navajo skin-walker, mimic, and therianthrope. The prefix "were-", coming from the Old English word for "man" (masculine rather than generic), is also used to designate shapeshifters; despite its root, it is used to indicate female shapeshifters as well.


title: Shapeshifting

text: While the popular idea of a shapeshifter is of a human being who turns into something else, there are numerous stories about animals that can transform themselves as well.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Examples of shape-shifting in classical literature include many examples in Ovid's "Metamorphoses", Circe's transforming of Odysseus' men to pigs in Homer's "The Odyssey", and Apuleius's Lucius becoming a donkey in "The Golden Ass". Proteus was noted among the gods for his shape-shifting; both Menelaus and Aristaeus seized him to win information from him, and succeeded only because they held on during his various changes. Nereus told Heracles where to find the Apples of the Hesperides for the same reason.


title: Shapeshifting

text: The Oceanid Metis, the first wife of Zeus and the mother of the goddess Athena, was believed to be able to change her appearance into anything she wanted. In one story, she was so proud, that her husband, Zeus, tricked her into changing into a fly. He then swallowed her because he feared that he and Metis would have a son who would be more powerful than Zeus himself. Metis, however, was already pregnant. She stayed alive inside his head and built armor for her daughter. The banging of her metalworking made Zeus have a headache, so Hephaestus clove his head with an axe. Athena sprang from her father's head, fully grown, and in battle armor.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In Greek mythology, the transformation is often a punishment from the gods to humans who crossed them.


title: Shapeshifting

text: While the Greek gods could use transformation punitively – such as Medusa, turned to a monster for having sexual intercourse (raped in Ovid's version) with Poseidon in Athena's temple – even more frequently, the tales using it are of amorous adventure. Zeus repeatedly transformed himself to approach mortals as a means of gaining access:


title: Shapeshifting

text: Vertumnus transformed himself into an old woman to gain entry to Pomona's orchard; there, he persuaded her to marry him.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In other tales, the woman appealed to other gods to protect her from rape, and was transformed (Daphne into laurel, Cornix into a crow). Unlike Zeus and other gods' shape-shifting, these women were permanently metamorphosed.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In one tale, Demeter transformed herself into a mare to escape Poseidon, but Poseidon counter-transformed himself into a stallion to pursue her, and succeeded in the rape. Caenis, having been raped by Poseidon, demanded of him that she be changed to a man. He agreed, and she became Caeneus, a form he never lost, except, in some versions, upon death.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Clytie was a nymph who loved Helios, but he did not love her back. Desperate, she sat on a rock with no food or water for nine days looking at him as he crossed the skies, until she was transformed into a purple, sun-gazing flower, the heliotropium.


title: Shapeshifting

text: As a final reward from the gods for their hospitality, Baucis and Philemon were transformed, at their deaths, into a pair of trees.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Eos, the goddess of the dawn, secured immortality for her lover the Trojan prince Tithonus, but not eternal youth, so he aged without dying as he shriveled and grew more and more helpless. In the end, Eos transformed him into a cicada.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Sometimes metamorphoses transformed objects into humans. In the myths of both Jason and Cadmus, one task set to the hero was to sow dragon's teeth; on being sown, they would metamorphose into belligerent warriors, and both heroes had to throw a rock to trick them into fighting each other to survive. Deucalion and Pyrrha repopulated the world after a flood by throwing stones behind them; they were transformed into people. Cadmus is also often known to have transformed into a dragon or serpent towards the end of his life. Pygmalion fell in love with Galatea, a statue he had made. Aphrodite had pity on him and transformed the stone to a living woman.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Fairies, witches, and wizards were all noted for their shape-shifting ability. Not all fairies could shapeshift, some having only the appearance of shape-shifting, through their power, called "glamour," to create illusions, and some were limited to changing their size, as with the spriggans, and others to a few forms. But others, such as the Hedley Kow, could change to many forms, and both human and supernatural wizards were capable of both such changes, and inflicting them on others.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Many British fairy tales, such as "Jack the Giant Killer" and "The Black Bull of Norroway", feature shape-shifting.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Pwyll was transformed by Arawn into Arawn's own shape, and Arawn transformed himself into Pwyll's, so that they could trade places for a year and a day.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Llwyd ap Cil Coed transformed his wife and attendants into mice to attack a crop in revenge; when his wife is captured, he turned himself into three clergymen in succession to try to pay a ransom.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion transform flowers into a woman named Blodeuwedd, and when she betrays her husband Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who is transformed into an eagle, they transform her again, into an owl.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Gilfaethwy committed rape on Goewin, Math fab Mathonwy's virgin footholder, with help from his brother Gwydion. Both were transformed into animals, for one year each. Gwydion was transformed into a stag, sow and wolf, and Gilfaethwy into a hind, boar and she-wolf. Each year, they had a child. Math turned the three young animals into boys.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Gwion, having accidentally taken some of the wisdom potion that Ceridwen was brewing for her son, fled from her through a succession of changes that she answered with changes of her own, ending with his being eaten, a grain of corn, by her as a hen. She became pregnant, and he was reborn in a new form, as Taliesin.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Tales abound about the selkie, a seal that can remove its skin to make contact with humans for only a short amount of time before it must return to the sea. Clan MacColdrum of Uist's foundation myths include a union between the founder of the clan and a shape-shifting selkie. Another such creature is the Scottish selkie, which needs its sealskin to regain its form. In "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" the (male) selkie seduces a human woman. Such stories surrounding these creatures are usually romantic tragedies.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Scottish mythology features shapeshifters, which allows the various creatures to trick, deceive, hunt, and kill humans. Water spirits such as the each-uisge, which inhabit lochs and waterways in Scotland, were said to appear as a horse or a young man. Other tales include kelpies who emerge from lochs and rivers in the disguise of a horse or woman in order to ensnare and kill weary travelers. Tam Lin, a man captured by the Queen of the Fairies is changed into all manner of beasts before being rescued. He finally turned into a burning coal and was thrown into a well, whereupon he reappeared in his human form. The motif of capturing a person by holding him through all forms of transformation is a common thread in folktales.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Perhaps the best-known Irish myth is that of Aoife who turned her stepchildren, the Children of Lir, into swans to be rid of them. Likewise, in the "Tochmarc Étaíne", Fuamnach jealously turns Étaín into a butterfly. The most dramatic example of shape-shifting in Irish myth is that of Tuan mac Cairill, the only survivor of Partholón's settlement of Ireland. In his centuries long life he became successively a stag, a wild boar, a hawk and finally a salmon prior to being eaten and (as in the Wooing of Étaín) reborn as a human.


title: Shapeshifting

text: The Púca is a Celtic faery, and also a deft shapeshifter. He can transform into many different, terrifying forms.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Sadhbh, the wife of the famous hero Fionn mac Cumhaill, was changed into a deer by the druid Fer Doirich when she spurned his amorous interests.


title: Shapeshifting

text: There is a significant amount of literature about shapeshifters that appear in a variety of Norse tales.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In the Lokasenna, Odin and Loki taunt each other with having taken the form of females and nursing offspring to which they had given birth. A 13th-century Edda relates Loki taking the form of a mare to bear Odin's steed Sleipnir which was the fastest horse ever to exist, and also the form of a she-wolf to bear Fenrir.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Svipdagr angered Odin, who turned him into a dragon. Despite his monstrous appearance, his lover, the goddess Freyja, refused to leave his side. When the warrior Hadding found and slew Svipdagr, Freyja cursed him to be tormented by a tempest and shunned like the plague wherever he went. In the "Hyndluljóð", Freyja transformed her protégé Óttar into a boar to conceal him. She also possessed a cloak of falcon feathers that allowed her to transform into a falcon, which Loki borrowed on occasion.


title: Shapeshifting

text: The Volsunga saga contains many shape-shifting characters. Siggeir's mother changed into a wolf to help torture his defeated brothers-in-law with slow and ignominious deaths. When one, Sigmund, survived, he and his nephew and son Sinfjötli killed men wearing wolfskins; when they donned the skins themselves, they were cursed to become werewolves.


title: Shapeshifting

text: The dwarf Andvari is described as being able to magically turn into a pike. Alberich, his counterpart in Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen", using the Tarnhelm, takes on many forms, including a giant serpent and a toad, in a failed attempt to impress or intimidate Loki and Odin/Wotan.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Fafnir was originally a dwarf, a giant or even a human, depending on the exact myth, but in all variants he transformed into a dragon—a symbol of greed—while guarding his ill-gotten hoard. His brother, Ótr, enjoyed spending time as an otter, which led to his accidental slaying by Loki.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In Scandinavia, there existed, for example, the famous race of she-werewolves known with a name of Maras, women who took on the appearance of huge half-human and half-wolf monsters that stalked the night in search of human or animal prey. If a woman gives birth at midnight and stretches the membrane which envelopes the child when it is brought forth, between four sticks and creeps through it, naked, she will bear children without pain; but all the boys will be shamans, and all the girls Maras.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Gunnhild, Mother of Kings ("Gunnhild konungamóðir") (c. 910  –  c. 980), a quasi-historical figure who appears in the Icelandic Sagas, according to which she was the wife of Eric Bloodaxe, was credited with magic powers – including the power of shape-shifting


title: Shapeshifting

text: and turning at will into a bird. She is the central character of the novel "Mother of Kings" by Poul Anderson, which considerably elaborates on her shape-shifting abilities.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In Armenian mythology, shapeshifters include the "Nhang", a serpentine river monster than can transform itself into a woman or seal, and will drown humans and then drink their blood; or the beneficial "Shahapet", a guardian spirit that can appear either as a man or a snake.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Philippine mythology includes the Aswang, a vampiric monster capable of transforming into a bat, a large black dog, a black cat, a black boar or some other form in order to stalk humans at night. The folklore also mentions other beings such as the Kapre, the Tikbalang and the Engkanto, which change their appearances to woo beautiful maidens. Also, talismans (called ""anting-anting"" or ""birtud"" in the local dialect), can give their owners the ability to shape-shifting. In one tale, "Chonguita the Monkey Wife", a woman is turned into a monkey, only becoming human again if she can marry a handsome man.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Tatar folklore includes Yuxa, a hundred-year-old snake that can transform itself into a beautiful young woman, and seeks to marry men in order to have children.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Chinese mythology contains many tales of animal shapeshifters, capable of taking on human form. The most common such shapeshifter is the huli jing, a fox spirit which usually appears as a beautiful young woman; most are dangerous, but some feature as the heroines of love stories. "Madame White Snake" is one such legend; a snake falls in love with a man, and the story recounts the trials that she and her husband faced.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In Japanese folklore obake are a type of yōkai with the ability to shape-shifting. The fox, or kitsune is among the most commonly known, but other such creatures include the bakeneko, the mujina and the tanuki.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Korean mythology also contains a fox with the ability to shape-shifting. Unlike its Chinese and Japanese counterparts, the kumiho is always malevolent. Usually its form is of a beautiful young woman; one tale recounts a man, a would-be seducer, revealed as a kumiho. The kumiho has nine tails and as she desires to be a full human, she uses her beauty to seduce men and eat their hearts (or in some cases livers where the belief is that 100 livers would turn her into a real human).


title: Shapeshifting

text: In Somali mythology "Qori ismaris" ("One who rubs himself with a stick") was a man who could transform himself into a "Hyena-man" by rubbing himself with a magic stick at nightfall and by repeating this process could return to his human state before dawn.


title: Shapeshifting

text: ǀKaggen is Mantis, a demi-urge and folk hero of the ǀXam people of southern Africa. He is a trickster god who can shape shift, usually taking the form of a praying mantis but also a bull eland, a louse, a snake, and a caterpillar.


title: Shapeshifting

text: The Ligahoo or loup-garou is the shapeshifter of Trinidad and Tobago's folklore. This unique ability is believed to be handed down in some old creole families, and is usually associated with witch-doctors and practitioners of African magic.


title: Shapeshifting

text: The name of the Nahuel Huapi Lake in Argentina derives from the toponym of its major island in Mapudungun (Mapuche language): "Island of the Jaguar (or Puma)", from "nahuel", "puma (or jaguar)", and "huapí", "island". There is, however, more to the word "Nahuel" – it can also signify "a man who by sorcery has been transformed into a puma" (or jaguar).


title: Shapeshifting

text: In Slavic Mythology, one of the main gods Veles was a shape-shifting god of animals, magic and the underworld. He was often represented as a bear, wolf, snake or owl. He also became a dragon while fighting Perun, the Slavic storm god.


title: Shapeshifting

text: shape-shifting may be used as a plot device, such as when Puss in Boots in the fairy tales tricks the ogre into becoming a mouse to be eaten. Shape-shifting may also include symbolic significance, like the Beast's transformation in "Beauty and the Beast" indicates Belle's ability to accept him despite his appearance.


title: Shapeshifting

text: When a form is taken on involuntarily, the thematic effect can be one of confinement and restraint; the person is "bound" to the new form. In extreme cases, such as petrifaction, the character is entirely disabled. On the other hand, voluntary shape-shifting can be a means of escape and liberation. Even when the form is not undertaken to resemble a literal escape, the abilities specific to the form allow the character to act in a manner that was previously impossible.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Examples of this are in fairy tales. A prince who is forced into a bear's shape (as in "East of the Sun and West of the Moon") is a prisoner, but a princess who takes on a bear's shape voluntarily to flee a situation (as in "The She-Bear") escapes with her new shape. In the Earthsea books, Ursula K. Le Guin depicts an animal form as slowly transforming the wizard's mind, so that the dolphin, bear or other creature forgets it was human, making it impossible to change back. This makes an example for a voluntary shape-shifting becoming an imprisoning metamorphosis.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Beyond this, the uses of shape-shifting, transformation, and metamorphosis in fiction are as protean as the forms the characters take on. Some are rare, such as Italo Calvino's "The Canary Prince" is a Rapunzel variant in which shape-shifting is used to gain access to the tower.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In many cases, imposed forms are punitive in nature. This may be a just punishment, the nature of the transformation matching the crime for which it occurs; in other cases, the form is unjustly imposed by an angry and powerful person. In fairy tales, such transformations are usually temporary, but they commonly appear as the resolution of myths (as in many of the Metamorphoses) or produce origin myths.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In many fairy tales and ballads, as in Child Ballad #44, "The Twa Magicians" or "Farmer Weathersky", a magical chase occurs where the pursued endlessly takes on forms in an effort to shake off the pursuer, and the pursuer answers with shape-shifting, as, a dove is answered with a hawk, and a hare with a greyhound. The pursued may finally succeed in escape or the pursuer in capturing.


title: Shapeshifting

text: The Grimm Brothers fairy tale "Foundling-Bird" contains this as the bulk of the plot. In the Italian Campania Fables collection of "Pentamerone" by Gianbattista Basile, tells of a Neapolitan princess who, to escape from her father who had imprisoned her, becomes a huge she-bear. The magic happens due to a potion given to her by an old witch. The girl, once gone, can regain her human aspect.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In other variants, the pursued may transform various objects into obstacles, as in the fairy tale "The Master Maid", where the Master Maid transforms a wooden comb into a forest, a lump of salt into a mountain, and a flask of water into a sea. In these tales, the pursued normally escapes after overcoming three obstacles. This obstacle chase is literally found worldwide, in many variants in every region.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In fairy tales of the Aarne–Thompson type 313A, The Girl Helps the Hero Flee, such a chase is an integral part of the tale. It can be either a transformation chase (as in "The Grateful Prince", "King Kojata", "Foundling-Bird", "Jean, the Soldier, and Eulalie, the Devil's Daughter", or "The Two Kings' Children") or an obstacle chase (as in "The Battle of the Birds", "The White Dove", or "The Master Maid").


title: Shapeshifting

text: In a similar effect, a captive may shape-shifting in order to break a hold on him. Proteus and Nereus's shape-shifting was to prevent heroes such as Menelaus and Heracles from forcing information from them. Tam Lin, once seized by Janet, was transformed by the faeries to keep Janet from taking him, but as he had advised her, she did not let go, and so freed him. The motif of capturing a person by holding him through many transformations is found in folktales throughout Europe, and Patricia A. McKillip references it in her "Riddle-Master trilogy": a shape-shifting Earthmaster finally wins its freedom by startling the man holding it.


title: Shapeshifting

text: One motif is a shape change in order to obtain abilities in the new form. Berserkers were held to change into wolves and bears in order to fight more effectively. In many cultures, evil magicians could transform into animal shapes and thus skulk about.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In many fairy tales, the hero's talking animal helper proves to be a shapeshifted human being, able to help him in its animal form. In one variation, featured in "The Three Enchanted Princes" and "The Death of Koschei the Deathless", the hero's three sisters have been married to animals. These prove to be shapeshifted men, who aid their brother-in-law in a variant of tale types.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In an early Mayan text, the Shapeshifter, or Mestaclocan, has the ability to change his appearance and to manipulate the minds of animals. In one tale, the Mestaclocan finds a dying eagle. Changing into the form of an eagle, he convinces the dying bird that it is, in fact, not dying. As the story goes they both soar into the heavens, and lived together for eternity.


title: Shapeshifting

text: "Beauty and the Beast" has been interpreted as a young woman's coming-of-age, in which she changes from being repulsed by sexual activity and regarding a husband therefore bestial, to a mature woman who can marry.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Some shapeshifters are able to change form only if they have some item, usually an article of clothing. In "Bisclavret" by Marie de France, a werewolf cannot regain human form without his clothing, but in wolf form does no harm to anyone. The most common use of this motif, however, is in tales where a man steals the article and forces the shapeshifter, trapped in human form, to become his bride. This lasts until she discovers where he has hidden the article, and she can flee. Selkies feature in these tales. Others include swan maidens and the Japanese "tennin".


title: Shapeshifting

text: Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, in "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils", included a version of the story with the typical elements (fisherman sees mermaids dancing on an island and steals the sealskin of one of them, preventing her from becoming a seal again so that he could marry her) and linked it to the founding of the city of Stockholm.


title: Shapeshifting

text: The power to externally transform can symbolize an internal savagery; a central theme in many strands of werewolf mythology, and the inversion of the "liberation" theme, as in Dr Jekyll's transformation into Mr. Hyde.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Some transformations are performed to remove the victim from his place, so that the transformer can usurp it. Bisclaveret's wife steals his clothing and traps him in wolf form because she has a lover. A witch, in "The Wonderful Birch", changed a mother into a sheep to take her place, and had the mother slaughtered; when her stepdaughter married the king, the witch transformed her into a reindeer so as to put her daughter in the queen's place. In the Korean "Transformation of the Kumiho", a kumiho, a fox with magical powers, transformed itself into an image of the bride, only being detected when her clothing is removed. In "Brother and Sister", when two children flee from their cruel stepmother, she enchants the streams along the way to transform them. While the brother refrains from the first two, which threaten to turn them into tigers and wolves, he is too thirsty at the third, which turns him into a deer. "The Six Swans" are transformed into swans by their stepmother, as are the Children of Lir in Irish mythology.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Many fairy-tale characters have expressed ill-advised wishes to have any child at all, even one that has another form, and had such children born to them. At the end of the fairy tale, normally after marriage, such children metamorphose into human form. "Hans My Hedgehog" was born when his father wished for a child, even a hedgehog. Even stranger forms are possible: Giambattista Basile included in his "Pentamerone" the tale of a girl born as a sprig of myrtle, and Italo Calvino, in his "Italian Folktales", a girl born as an apple.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Sometimes, the parent who wishes for a child is told how to gain one, but does not obey the directions perfectly, resulting in the transformed birth. In "Prince Lindworm", the woman eats two onions, but does not peel one, resulting in her first child being a lindworm. In "Tatterhood", a woman magically produces two flowers, but disobeys the directions to eat only the beautiful one, resulting her having a beautiful and sweet daughter, but only after a disgusting and hideous one.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Less commonly, ill-advised wishes can transform a person after birth. "The Seven Ravens" are transformed when their father thinks his sons are playing instead of fetching water to christen their newborn and sickly sister, and curses them. In "Puddocky", when three princes start to quarrel over the beautiful heroine, a witch curses her because of the noise.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Such wished-for children may become monstrous brides or bridegrooms. These tales have often been interpreted as symbolically representing arranged marriages; the bride's revulsion to marrying a stranger being symbolized by his bestial form.


title: Shapeshifting

text: The heroine must fall in love with the transformed groom. The hero or heroine must marry, as promised, and the monstrous form is removed by the wedding. Sir Gawain thus transformed the Loathly lady; although he was told that this was half-way, she could at his choice be beautiful by day and hideous by night, or vice versa, he told her that he would choose what she preferred, which broke the spell entirely. In "Tatterhood", Tatterhood is transformed by her asking her bridegroom why he didn't ask her why she rode a goat, why she carried a spoon, and why she was so ugly, and when he asked her, denying it and therefore transforming her goat into a horse, her spoon into a fan, and herself into a beauty. Puddocky is transformed when her prince, after she had helped him with two other tasks, tells him that his father has sent him for a bride. A similar effect is found in Child ballad 34, "Kemp Owyne", where the hero can transform a dragon back into a maiden by kissing her three times.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Sometimes the bridegroom removes his animal skin for the wedding night, whereupon it can be burned. "Hans My Hedgehog", "The Donkey" and "The Pig King" fall under this grouping. At an extreme, in "Prince Lindworm", the bride who avoids being eaten by the lindworm bridegroom arrives at her wedding wearing every gown she owns, and she tells the bridegroom she will remove one of hers if he removes one of his; only when her last gown comes off has he removed his last skin, and become a white shape that she can form into a man.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In some tales, the hero or heroine must obey a prohibition; the bride must spend a period of time not seeing the transformed groom in human shape (as in "East of the Sun and West of the Moon"), or the bridegroom must not burn the animals' skins. In "The Brown Bear of Norway", "The Golden Crab", "The Enchanted Snake" and some variants of "The Frog Princess", burning the skin is a catastrophe, putting the transformed bride or bridegroom in danger. In these tales, the prohibition is broken, invariably, resulting in a separation and a search by one spouse for the other.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Ghosts sometimes appear in animal form. In "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men", the heroine's murdered husband appears to the king as a white dove, lamenting her fate over his own grave. In "The White and the Black Bride" and "The Three Little Men in the Wood", the murdered – drowned – true bride reappears as a white duck. In "The Rose Tree" and "The Juniper Tree", the murdered children become birds who avenge their own deaths. There are African folk tales of murder victims avenging themselves in the form of crocodiles that can shape-shifting into human form.


title: Shapeshifting

text: In some fairy tales, the character can reveal himself in every new form, and so a usurper repeatedly kills the victim in every new form, as in "Beauty and Pock Face", "A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers", and "The Boys with the Golden Stars". This eventually leads to a form in which the character (or characters) can reveal the truth to someone able to stop the villain.


title: Shapeshifting

text: Similarly, the transformation back may be acts that would be fatal. In "The Wounded Lion", the prescription for turning the lion back into a prince was to kill him, chop him to pieces, burn the pieces, and throw the ash into water. Less drastic but no less apparently fatal, the fox in "The Golden Bird", the foals in "The Seven Foals", and the cats in "Lord Peter" and "The White Cat" tell the heroes of those stories to cut off their heads; this restores them to human shape. In the Greek tale of Scylla, Scylla's father Nisus turns into an eagle after death and drowns her daughter for betraying her father.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: Matthew Tyler Musto (born November 27, 1990), professionally known as Blackbear (stylized as blackbear), is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has released six studio albums, six EPs, one mixtape and two collaborative albums. Musto is also a member of the alternative hip hop duo Mansionz with singer-songwriter Mike Posner.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: Musto was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, and moved to Palm Coast as a child. His father is of Italian descent. He has stated that many of his family members are from Pittston, Pennsylvania. In fourth grade, he became interested in music through Rancid, Blink-182, and bands his babysitter introduced him to, such as New Found Glory and Alkaline Trio.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: In high school, Musto was the singer of Florida-based rock band Polaroid. They released one album, "Paint The Town"; one EP, "Inside And Out"; and one demo, "The Cure Demo" and have been variously described as being a pop punk, punk rock, and garage band. During Musto's freshman year of high school, the band signed to Leakmob Records. Musto dropped out of school in the 10th grade to focus on music. As Polaroid progressed, their music became increasingly influenced by emo. By 2008, Musto had also begun to write his own solo music.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: After leaving Polaroid, Musto began a solo career when he moved to Atlanta to work with Ne-Yo. He put out his first EP entitled "Brightness" in 2008, followed by "Contrast" in 2009, and "Exposure" in 2010. He put out the Christmas song "I Hate the Holidays" with Tyler Carter, then-member of the band Woe, Is Me in late-2010, shortly followed by a new single, "Douche Bag" in early-January 2011. In mid-2011, Musto released both the "Gone For Good" EP and the "Year of the Blackbear" EP. In fall 2011, Musto decided to use his nickname Blackbear as his pseudonym when making music. The first song to be released with the Blackbear moniker is Mike Posner's "Marauder Music" in November 2011.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: Musto co-wrote Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend", a number 2 hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in early 2012. Intent on pursuing a career as an R&B singer, Musto released his debut EP "Foreplay" on April 20, 2012, and his debut mixtape "Sex" on October 31, 2012. Both releases were under the name Blackbear, and "Sex" featured collaborations from fellow "Boyfriend" co-writer Mike Posner, along with producers, singers, and songwriters James Blake and Maejor Ali. He also appeared on Machine Gun Kelly’s "End of the Road" from the "Lace Up" album, released October 9, 2012. On April 20, 2014, Blackbear released "The Afterglow" EP, which landed him number four on Billboard's Uncharted listing of releases from upcoming artists.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: Blackbear released his first full-length album, "Deadroses", a self-released set of 10 tracks, on February 14, 2015. The album received favorable reviews, one of which stating that the album had "pleasantly mixed together a plethora of genres, sounds, and emotions to create a completely cohesive and unique project." The lead single, "idfc", charted on "Billboard"'s R&B Hot 100 and held a spot on the "Billboard" R&B charts for over a year. The track has earned millions of streams on both SoundCloud and Spotify. It has been streamed over 550 million times on SoundCloud and Idfc (Tarro Remix) has over 255 million views as of January 2022. "idfc" shot Blackbear to the top 20 of the Billboard charts. The second single, "90210", features G-Eazy and gained over 55 million streams on Spotify.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: "Deadroses" was followed by the EP "Dead", which featured acoustic versions of four "Deadroses" tracks, as well as one new track, "Weak When Ur Around".


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On April 20, 2016, Blackbear released his fourth EP, "Drink Bleach", which featured appearances from "Boyfriend" collaborator Mike Posner as well as American hip-hop recording artist and The HBK Gang co-founder P-Lo.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: Throughout the year, Blackbear collaborated with other artists such as American rock band Linkin Park as well as Jacob Sartorius and Phoebe Ryan. He also toured with Hoodie Allen, whose 2016 track and "Happy Camper" promotional single "Champagne and Pools" also featured Blackbear. Mid-year, he joined Super Duper Kyle and Tinashe on their tours.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On August 2, 2016, Blackbear released his fifth EP, titled "Cashmere Noose", through SoundCloud. He handled the EP's production entirely on his own through his production collective Bear Trap Records. The EP originally included a feature from American rapper Mod Sun on the track "Spent All My Money On Rick Owens Cargo Pants"; however, this track was removed from the EP's final cut and replaced with "Wanderlust" and "Flirt Right Back". The original version of "Cashmere Noose", however, can still be found on Blackbear's SoundCloud page. The final version of "Cashmere Noose" peaked at number one on the iTunes R&B charts and number six overall on iTunes, just behind Beyonce's "Lemonade" and Drake's "Views".


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: Blackbear was also featured in Olivia O'Brien's single "Root Beer Float", released September 15, 2016. He also released the track "If I Could I Would Feel Nothing", a freestyle originally posted on his Twitter that eventually became a promotional single for his upcoming third studio album.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: In late 2016, Blackbear formed the alternative hip hop duo Mansionz with frequent collaborator and singer-songwriter Mike Posner. Mansionz has been active since 2016 and is based out of Los Angeles, California. The duo released their debut single, "STFU", on December 9, 2016. The song features rapper Spark Master Tape. Mansionz released two more singles in early 2017, "Rich White Girls" and "Dennis Rodman", the latter of which features the basketball player Dennis Rodman. Both of these singles, along with "STFU", were featured on Mansionz' self-titled debut album which was released on March 24, 2017, and features guest appearances from G-Eazy, Soren Bryce, CyHi the Prynce, and Snoozegod.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On January 29, 2017, he posted the track "Make Daddy Proud", which was a remix of Jeremy Zucker's "Heavy", on his SoundCloud page. The track was later confirmed to be the next promotional single for his third studio album "Digital Druglord". On March 17, 2017, Blackbear released the lead single for the album, titled "Do Re Mi".


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On April 2, 2017, shortly before the release of "Digital Druglord", Blackbear released a short acoustic EP titled "Salt" on his SoundCloud. "Digital Druglord" was released on April 20, 2017, featuring the single "Do Re Mi" along with promotional singles "If I Could I Would Feel Nothing" and "Make Daddy Proud". In an interview with Vice's music channel Noisey, he revealed that he wrote "Digital Druglord" while in the hospital based on his experiences with alcohol and drugs. He states that the cover art for the album, a woman with pill bottles attached to her chest, is not to glorify the use of pharmaceuticals, but because he now has to take prescription drugs to stay alive due to his illness.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On June 22, 2017, he signed a 10 million dollar distribution deal with Interscope that gave the label the rights to "Digital Druglord" and the following studio album and their respective singles.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On August 18, 2017, Blackbear announced his next project, a mixtape named "Cybersex". The name "Cybersex" comes from Blackbear's infatuation with the internet. In an interview with Pigeons & Planes, he talks about how the internet is why he is here and how cybersex was the first form of sexting. He states how he finds the internet interesting and how you can now fall asleep with your loved one in another country, due to technology. He released a song on SoundCloud in September 2017 titled "froze over". The track was written and produced by Good Intent and Blackbear and it would later appear in "Cybersex" as a two part interlude titled "thursday/froze over". On October 6, 2017, a song titled "Playboy Shit", which features rapper Lil Aaron, was released on Blackbear's PornHub account and confirmed to be a part of the project. On October 20, 2017, Blackbear released the single "Bright Pink Tims" featuring Cam'ron. This day also marked the first day of his tour in support of Fall Out Boy's Mania Tour, running until November 18. On November 27, 2017, Musto's 27th birthday, "Cybersex" was released.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On April 26, 2018, "About You", a song written by Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda regarding the death of his bandmate Chester Bennington, was released featuring Blackbear.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: In February 2019, Blackbear said he would be releasing a single per week until April 26, which is when his fourth studio album would be released. On Valentine's Day 2019, he released his single "1 SIDED LOVE". On February 20, he released his single "HIGH1X". On March 13, he released his single "SWEAR TO GOD" during Zane Lowe's transmission on Beats 1.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: April 26, 2019, he released the full album, "Anonymous". This album is his longest album yet, containing 18 tracks lasting a total of 51 minutes. Along with the release of this album, he posted a photo on Instagram with a caption discussing his gratefulness of a second chance after his health complications at age 27, and he discusses how meaningful this album is to him.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On August 23, 2019, he released the lead single "Hot Girl Bummer" from his upcoming fifth studio album "Everything Means Nothing".


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On November 13, 2019, Blackbear released the one-off single "Tongue Tied", with American producer Marshmello and English singer Yungblud. On January 16, 2020, he released the album's third single "Me & Ur Ghost".


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On April 3, 2020, he was featured on the All Time Low song "Monsters" from their album "Wake Up, Sunshine".


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On July 5, 2020, Blackbear tweeted the release date of the coming album, stating it would be a "2 part LP", with the first part releasing July 17, 2020 and the second part releasing August 21, 2020.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On July 17, 2020, he released the first part of the album consisting of three new singles and the three already released, with new songs "I Feel Bad", "I Feel 2 Much", and "I Felt That". The tracklist for part two of "Everything Means Nothing" was also released, with songs "Sobbing In Cabo", "Clown" with Trevor Daniel, "Half Alive", "If I Were U" with Lauv, "Why Are Girls", and "Smile Again".


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On August 7, 2020, Machine Gun Kelly’s single "My Ex's Best Friend" was released featuring Blackbear. On October 16, 2020, G-Eazy's single "Hate the Way" was released featuring Blackbear.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On August 23, 2019, Blackbear put out "Hot Girl Bummer". This song was actually inspired by his diagnosis of necrotizing fasciitis. The mention to drug and alcohol abuse over a short period of time allude to his addiction during his diagnosis.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On May 21, 2021, Blackbear released the single "Jealousy" Alongside Mansionz partner Mike Posner, the first track in 4 years following the duo's self-titled debut album.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On June 4, 2021, Blackbear released the EPs promotional song "U Love U" with Canadian singer-songwriter Tate McRae, as the lead single from his upcoming extended play, "Misery Lake". On July 14, 2021, Blackbear announced the tracklist to his EP "Misery Lake", alongside a tweet that the EP would be delayed to August 13, 2021, as a result of Sony Music Entertainment acquiring Alamo Records. Under Sony, he was assigned to its flagship label Columbia Records. Sony Music also distributes his previous releases for Alamo, from the period when it was distributed by Interscope.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On November 4, 2021, ASCAP announced Blackbear's signing to a song administration deal. He was previously affiliated with Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), which still controls his shareholdings to previous works.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On May 27, 2022, Blackbear released the lead single off the album titled "Gfy" featuring Machine Gun Kelly.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On July 16, 2022, Blackbear announced the released the tracklist and official release date for the album along with the pre-order.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On August 5, 2022, Blackbear released the third single from the album titled "Toxic Energy", featuring The Used.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: In addition to his own music, Musto has produced and written for many popular artists. He has collaborated with numerous musical artists such as Justin Bieber, G-Eazy, Mike Posner, All Time Low, Nick Jonas, Machine Gun Kelly, Ellie Goulding, Cam'ron, Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz, Mod Sun, Rivers Cuomo, Linkin Park, Billie Eilish, Pharrell Williams, Miley Cyrus, Mike Shinoda, Charlie Puth, Tiny Meat Gang, and Maroon 5.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: He co-wrote "Boyfriend" by Justin Bieber, alongside Mike Posner, which debuted at number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100. He also produced the title track from G-Eazy's album These Things Happen, as well as featuring on the album.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: In April 2016, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis due to excessive alcohol use. During his time in the hospital, he wrote his album "Digital Druglord" and took this time to become sober. In August 2018, Musto joined forces with Mission: Cure, a non-profit dedicated to finding a cure for chronic pancreatitis. He was a recipient of the "Courage Award" for his inspiration to others living with pancreatitis and gave a speech at their gala event. In November 2018, Musto collaborated with the brand PopSockets and donated 50% of the proceeds of his branded products to Mission: Cure.


title: Blackbear (musician)

text: On September 25, 2019, Musto announced that he and his girlfriend Michele Maturo were expecting their first child in January 2020. On January 29, 2020, the couple announced the birth of their son born on January 26, 2020. On April 11, 2021, the couple announced their engagement via Maturo's Instagram page. On March 12, 2022, the couple had their second son.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Tamara Lynn Sytch (born December 7, 1972), commonly known by her ring name Sunny, is an American former professional wrestling manager, valet, ring announcer, and adult entertainer. Sytch achieved great success as Sunny within the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE) during the 1990s and is considered the first WWF Diva. In 1996, America Online named her the most downloaded celebrity on the internet. She later performed under her birth name in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Ring of Honor. Sytch was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch was born to parents of American and Russian origin. Sytch grew up in a strict family, with a father retired from the United States Navy. Sytch graduated from Cedar Ridge High School in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey in 1990. Upon entering Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1993, her fictional "in-character" storyline presented her as having come from studying pre-law at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She then switched to pre-med at the University of Tennessee, with the ambition to be a plastic or orthopedic surgeon.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch started out traveling with her boyfriend Chris Candido to make some extra money. In late 1992, she signed a six-month deal with Smoky Mountain Wrestling. She first appeared onscreen as Tammy Fytch in 1993. She played a villain, who idolized Hillary Clinton. In her first storyline with the company, she threatened to file a sexual discrimination lawsuit due to the lack of prominent positions offered to females. In June 1993, an unnamed Sytch made a cameo appearance at Eastern Championship Wrestling's Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular event.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch managed Brian Lee to the Heavyweight Championship and also began accompanying Candido in his matches. By May 1994, she was managing the two men as a tag team, which won the Tag Team Championship from The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Both Sytch and Candido, however, left the promotion in early 1995 for jobs with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: In late 1994, Sytch was contacted by the WWF, and she began appearing as Tamara Murphy, a commentator for "Live Event News" segments during syndicated WWF television shows. One month later, Candido joined the WWF, and the duo began appearing as Sunny and Skip, known collectively as The Bodydonnas, villainous fitness fanatics. Zip (portrayed by Tom Prichard) later joined the team, and Sunny was in their corner when they won the Tag Team Championship over The Godwinns at WrestleMania XII. In 1996, she won "Pro Wrestling Illustrated"'s Manager of the Year Award. Weeks later, The Godwinns regained the championship, and Sunny turned on The Bodydonnas in favor of the new champions. She then turned on The Godwinns and helped The Smoking Gunns win the Tag Team Championship. After The Smokin' Gunns lost the title at , she fired them in the middle of the ring.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: She spent a short time as the manager of Faarooq Asaad, aiding him in his feud over the Intercontinental Championship with Marc Mero and his valet Sable. Sytch then began acting as host for several WWF television shows, including "LiveWire" and "Shotgun Saturday Night". In addition, she appeared on MTV's "Singled Out" and "Entertainment Tonight". Meanwhile, Candido left the WWF for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and it was not long before she began making guest appearances with him in the promotion. In August 1997, she appeared at ECW's Hardcore Heaven 1997 pay-per-view.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: In 1998, Sunny became a face and briefly became the manager for the Legion of Doom 2000, leading them to a win in a Tag Team Championship number one contender battle royal at WrestleMania XIV. Sunny would continue to manage them until she was released in July 1998 amid rumors of backstage problems with Rena "Sable" Mero and an addiction to painkillers, as well as no-showing several appearances.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: After being released by the WWF in July 1998, Sytch joined Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). She made her debut at Heat Wave four days after her WWF release. Now billed as Tammy Lynn Sytch, she assisted Candido in his win over Lance Storm and their subsequent feud. By September, Storm introduced his own valet, a parody of Sytch, "Tammy Lynn Bytch" (later known as Dawn Marie). Later that year, amid more rumors of drug use, Sytch and Candido took some time off of television.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: When the duo returned, Candido re-aligned with Shane Douglas' Triple Threat, and Sytch began a feud with Douglas' manager Francine. The feud was cut short when Sytch was arrested after violating a restraining order filed by her mother. After a brief tour of Australia, she returned in October 1999 on an episode of "ECW on TNN", where she talked openly about her past drug issues and reformation. Candido and Sytch left the promotion in December 1999.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: After appearing in Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) in early 2000, both Sytch and Candido signed on with World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Candido debuted in March of that year and Sytch debuted one month later at Spring Stampede, helping him win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship in a match against The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea. She then feuded with Iaukea's valet Paisley. The short-lived feud came to a conclusion at Slamboree when The Artist and Paisley stripped Tammy's dress off to reveal her undergarments following Candido's singles victory over Iaukea. Sytch and Candido then briefly feuded with Crowbar and Daffney. Candido later dropped the title, which marked the end of the couple's run with the company. As in the past, Sytch's departure was surrounded by rumors of drug abuse.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: After being released from WCW, the duo landed in Xtreme Pro Wrestling where she managed Candido to a title (the XPW World Heavyweight Title) once again. Candido and Sytch parted ways with XPW and started touring other independent wrestling promotions. In the spring of 2003, Sytch and Candido moved to Puerto Rico and were set to work for Victor Quinones' International Wrestling Association promotion. Sabu convinced them to work for Carlos Colón's rival World Wrestling Council (WWC) promotion instead. After six months, the couple quit the promotion and headed back to the States. Upon their return to the States, both Sytch and Candido briefly lived with former ECW wrestler Hack Myers in his home in Florida.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: After the death of Candido, Sytch became regularly involved in the independent circuit again. Sytch made appearances as a referee for NWS Wrestling in May 2005 and attended a "Chris Candido Memorial" show on June 4, 2005. Also, Sytch was a part of "Hardcore Homecoming" on June 10, 2005. She first came out with Johnny Grunge and Pitbull #1 to do a tribute to former ECW wrestlers who had recently died. Among those honored were Candido, Pitbull #2, and Rocco Rock. They were interrupted by Danny Doring and Roadkill, but 911 cleared them out of the ring.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: During this time period, Sytch appeared at the New Jersey-based NWA Cyberspace promotion. Soon after Sytch's departure from NWA Cyberspace, the New Jersey-based National Wrestling Superstars (NWS) became her new primary wrestling promotion. She appeared on a handful the promotion's shows in the summer, and on June 3, 2006, she managed Lex Luger to victory over Johnny Candido. Prior to the bout, a presentation was held from The Manasquan Elks Lodge to the "Chris Candido Memorial Fund". The Elks Lodge donated $500 to the fund, with the money being used towards a scholarship for a Manasquan High School student. Sytch returned to NWA Shockwave (formerly NWA Cyberspace) in 2006 as a featured headliner. On December 1, 2006, Sytch was appointed the new commissioner of NWA Shockwave. Immediately following this announcement, Sytch declared all Shockwave championship titles vacant and informed fans that new Heavyweight and Internet Champions would be crowned on January 13.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: On December 22, 2007, Sytch won her first championship, the WSU Championship, after defeating the champion Alicia at a Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU) show in Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey, holding the title until March 21, 2008, when she lost the title to Nikki Roxx in a three-way match that also included Alexa Thatcher. Sytch turned heel at WSU's J-Cup Tournament a day later, when she appeared as the villainous manager for Dawn Marie in her first round match against Becky Bayless, which Bayless won via disqualification.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch made an appearance at a Ring of Honor show on December 29, 2007 held at New York City, seated at ringside during a non-title three-way match where Daizee Haze defeated fellow ROH regulars Lacey, and then-Shimmer Champion Sara Del Rey. Upon the conclusion of the match, Lacey verbally assaulted Sytch and accused her of denigrating women's roles in professional wrestling, which supposedly resulted in women's wrestlers not being taken seriously in the industry. She also threatened to assault Sytch, but Haze made the save on Sytch's behalf. Sytch made a few more appearances for ROH in 2008, where she repeatedly offered her services to Austin Aries but was turned down. On the April 12 ROH show, Larry Sweeney announced that he had opened a "Diva School" and invited Sytch to be the trainer, an offer she said she would consider.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch made an appearance at Dynamite Championship Wrestling's 9 Year Anniversary Event in February 2012. She would be the official Host of the Event. She also made an appearance for Pennsylvania Premiere Wrestling on September 14, 2013 at the "Back at It" event in Freeland, Pennsylvania.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: A week after being released from jail in October 2018, Sytch announced via Facebook that she would be taking bookings for what she claimed would be her final nine to twelve months of appearances before retiring to a private life.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch made an appearance on the "15th Anniversary of Raw". Sytch, as Sunny, participated at WrestleMania XXV on April 5, 2009 in the 25-Diva battle royal for the crown of "Miss WrestleMania", but was eliminated by Beth Phoenix. Sytch was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by the entire roster of WWE Divas on April 2, 2011. In 2021, WWE Network listed her as one of the many female performers who made an impact in WWE outside the ring.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch has claimed that, in 1997, "Playboy" had approached her and offered a six-figure sum to pose nude for the magazine. Sytch stated that she declined the offer because she didn't feel that she was emotionally ready to do something like that. Rena "Sable" Mero, with whom Sytch had real-life animosity, later disputed Sytch's claim that she was approached for a possible photo shoot. From 2001 to 2003, however, Sytch regularly posed nude for Missy Hyatt's adult website "Wrestling Vixxxens". In later years, Sytch said she regretted taking part in the website due to money she claimed she never received as well as the sexual actions some of the other models performed in their own photo and video shoots.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: In 2016, Vivid Entertainment released a pornographic film featuring Sytch titled "Sunny Side Up: In Through the Backdoor".


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: After being released from prison in 2020, Sytch created an OnlyFans account to upload adult-oriented content.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch attended the same high school as her long-time boyfriend, Chris Candido, who would later introduce her to the professional wrestling industry. Sytch regularly managed Candido throughout his career until his death in 2005. By 2007, she was once again in school, studying Medical Technology.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch was friends with Bret Hart and would entertain his children whenever they followed him on tour. Sytch walked out of "Raw" the night after, in reaction to the Montreal Screwjob, the incident in which WWF owner Vince McMahon legitimately double-crossed Hart, who was leaving for main competitor WCW, and cost Hart the WWF Championship.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch was rushed to the hospital in 2001 after her appendix burst, which required time off from wrestling to heal. While in jail in 2013, Sytch said that she was diagnosed with cervical cancer but underwent a hysterectomy and was later diagnosed as cancer free.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: She released an autobiography, "A Star Shattered: The Rise & Fall & Rise of Wrestling Diva Tammy "Sunny" Sytch", on February 4, 2016.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: In 2012, Sytch was arrested five times in a four-week span, for disorderly conduct, third-degree burglary, and three counts of violating a protective order. She was arrested a sixth time in January 2013, also for violating a protective order. Sytch served 114 days in a Connecticut jail and was released in May 2013.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Throughout May and June 2015, Sytch was arrested in Pennsylvania three times for driving under the influence (DUI). Sytch pled guilty to all three charges in January 2016. A judge sentenced her to 90 days in jail on August 18, but counted her 97 days in rehab as time served. However, she was charged with violating her parole that September and remained in jail until February 3, 2017.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: While on probation, Sytch was arrested in New Jersey for two DUIs on January 23 and February 2, 2018, and was also charged with fleeing the scene of an accident in relation to the February 2 arrest. After failing to appear in court for either case, she was arrested on February 27, 2018 for two fugitive from justice charges and six counts of contempt of court and was placed in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution. While she was being processed it was discovered that she was a fugitive from justice due to her parole in Pennsylvania having been revoked in August 2017. Sytch was subsequently extradited to Pennsylvania on March 23 and remained at the Carbon County Correctional Facility in Nesquehoning until she was paroled on October 9, 2018.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: A bench warrant was issued for Sytch in Pennsylvania on February 15, 2019, and the Carbon County Probation Department filed a motion to revoke Sytch's October 2018 parole. She was arrested in Seaside Heights, New Jersey later that month for DUI and other driving offenses and subsequently released into the custody of the Holmdel Police Department after it was discovered that she had outstanding warrants in both Holmdel Township and Knowlton Township, New Jersey. She was charged with contempt of court on both warrants. On March 20, Sytch was extradited from Monmouth County back to Carbon County Correctional Facility to address her Pennsylvania charges. After over a year in prison, Sytch was released on February 25, 2020.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch was arrested on July 13, 2020, for allegedly eluding a police officer, contempt/violation of a domestic violence restraining order, and operating a motor vehicle during a second license suspension. She was held at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, and was released on June 9, 2021, due to a court order.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch was once again arrested on January 13, 2022, in Keansburg, New Jersey for unlawfully possessing a weapon and making terroristic threats. She was booked into the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, but released the following day after being ordered to check-in weekly with the court. The charges stem from an incident in which she allegedly threatened to murder an "intimate partner" with a pair of scissors. If convicted, Sytch faces eleven years in prison. She was arrested again a month later in Keansburg and charged with eleven driving offences, including DUI.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch was involved in a fatal car crash in Volusia County, Florida, that killed a 75-year-old man on March 25, 2022. According to a police report from the Ormond Beach Police Department, Sytch was driving a 2012 Mercedes-Benz when she crashed into the rear of a 2013 Kia Sorento that had been stopped at a stoplight. Witnesses told police that Sytch was driving at a high speed when she crashed into the Kia Sorento. Sytch was transported to the hospital with unknown injuries and a sample of her blood was taken for analysis. In May 2022, Sytch was arrested on DUI and manslaughter-related charges after toxicology reports found that her blood alcohol content was about 3.5 times the legal limit during the fatal car crash. After initially being released after posting $227,500 bond, a judge deemed her to be a danger to the community and revoked her bond six days later, and Sytch was returned to jail while she awaits trial. She faces 26 years in prison if convicted.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: Sytch became known as the "first Diva in WWE history" after her run in the 1990s. During this time, her 1996 bikini issue of "Raw Magazine" made a record number of sales. Her popularity expanded beyond professional wrestling, as America Online deemed her the most downloaded woman that same year. According to "Slam! Wrestling", Sytch's pairings with the Smokin' Gunns and the Godwins made her a "loathed villain, but one of the hottest personalities in WWE." WWE describe her as "the person who redefined the role of women in WWE", adding: "She wasn’t just a brainless bikini model or a vivacious valet at ringside. She was a pinup, a fast-talking manager and could throw down when she needed to. In short, she was sexy, smart and powerful." For her contributions to the promotion, she was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.


title: Tammy Lynn Sytch

text: "The Post and Courier" columnist Mike Mooneyham described Sytch as having "captivated audiences during her time in the business", but that "substance abuse and backstage drama, and later legal and personal problems, have plagued her over the years." After her 2022 arrest on DUI and manslaughter-related charges, former WWE wrestler Bill DeMott, whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver, called on the promotion to remove her from their Hall of Fame. The call was backed by WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry. Other WWE Hall of Famer Booker T though has objected to this and has claimed that she should not be removed as it wouldn't actually achieve anything.


title: Last Looks

text: Last Looks is a 2022 American-British mystery film, directed by Tim Kirkby, from a screenplay by Howard Michael Gould based on his novel of the same name. It stars Charlie Hunnam, Mel Gibson, Morena Baccarin, Lucy Fry, Rupert Friend, Dominic Monaghan, Jacob Scipio and Clancy Brown.


title: Last Looks

text: "Last Looks" is based on the 2018 crime-mystery novel of the same name, the first book in the Charlie Waldo series written by Gould. The second book in the series, "Below the Line", was published in August 2019.


title: Last Looks

text: In October 2018, Charlie Hunnam, Mel Gibson and Eiza González joined the cast of the film, then titled "Waldo", with Tim Kirkby directing from a screenplay by Howard Michael Gould. In June 2019, Jacob Scipio, Dominic Monaghan, Clancy Brown, Morena Baccarin, and Paul Ben-Victor joined the cast of the film. In July 2019, Lucy Fry joined the cast of the film. In August 2019, Rupert Friend and Method Man joined the cast of the film. The film was retitled from "Waldo" to "Last Looks" in June 2020. In December 2021, RLJE Films acquired North American rights to the film and set it for a February 2022 release.


title: Cinema of India

text: The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack, Kochi, and Guwahati. For a number of years the Indian film industry has ranked first in the world in terms of annual film output. In terms of box office it ranked third in 2019, with total gross of around (US$2.7 billion).


title: Cinema of India

text: Indian cinema is composed of multilingual and multi-ethnic film art. In 2019, Hindi cinema represented 44% of box office revenue, followed by Telugu and Tamil film industries, each representing 13%. Other prominent languages in the Indian film industry include Malayalam and Kannada, representing 5% each, as well as Bengali, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Gujarati and Bhojpuri. As of 2020, the combined revenue of all other language film industries has surpassed that of the Mumbai-based Bollywood Hindi film industry. As of 2022, Telugu cinema leads Indian cinema's box-office revenue.


title: Cinema of India

text: Indian cinema is a global enterprise and its films have wide viewership and fanbase throughout South Asia and have spread internationally. Modern film releases are dubbed into many languages, forming a Pan-India films movement. Millions of Indians overseas watch Indian films, accounting for 12% of revenue. Major Indian enterprises in the film industry include Arka Media Works, Aascar Films, Aashirvad Cinemas, AGS Entertainment, AVM Productions, Eros International, Geetha Arts, Hombale Films, Lyca Productions, Modern Theatres, Mythri Movie Makers, Salman Khan Films, Sun Pictures, Suresh Productions, UTV Motion Pictures, Yash Raj Films and Zee Entertainment Enterprises.


title: Cinema of India

text: The history of cinema in India extends to the beginning of the film era. Following the screening of the Lumière and Robert Paul moving pictures in London in 1896, commercial cinematography became a worldwide sensation and these films were shown in Bombay (now Mumbai) that same year.


title: Cinema of India

text: In 1897, a film presentation by filmmaker Professor Stevenson featured a stage show at Calcutta's Star Theatre. With Stevenson's camera and encouragement, Indian photographer Hiralal Sen filmed scenes from that show, exhibited as "The Flower of Persia" (1898). "The Wrestlers" (1899), by H. S. Bhatavdekar, showing a wrestling match at the Hanging Gardens in Bombay, was the first film to be shot by an Indian and the first Indian documentary film.


title: Cinema of India

text: The first full-length Indian films released in India were the Marathi-language silent films "Shree Pundalik" (1912, Dadasaheb Torne) and "Raja Harishchandra" (1913, Dadasaheb Phalke). Both were premiered at the Coronation Cinematograph in Bombay. Some film scholars have argued that "Pundalik" was not a true Indian film because it was simply a recording of a stage play, filmed by a British cameraman with the film processed in London. The latter film had a story based on elements from Sanskrit epics, and its successes led many to consider Phalke a pioneer of Indian cinema.


title: Cinema of India

text: The first Tamil and Malayam films, also silent films, were "Keechaka Vadham" (1916, R. Nataraja Mudaliar) and "Vigathakumaran" (1928, J. C. Daniel Nadar). The latter was the first Indian social drama film and featured the first Dalit-caste film actress.


title: Cinema of India

text: The first chain of Indian cinemas, Madan Theatre, was owned by Parsi entrepreneur Jamshedji Framji Madan, who oversaw the production and distribution of films for the chain. These included film adaptations from Bengal's popular literature and "Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra" (1917), a remake of Phalke's influential film.


title: Cinema of India

text: In South India, film pioneer Raghupathi Venkayya, credited as the father of Telugu cinema, built the first cinemas in Madras (now Chennai), and a film studio was established in the city by Nataraja Mudaliar.


title: Cinema of India

text: Films steadily gained popularity across India as affordable entertainment for the masses (admission as low as an "anna" [one-sixteenth of a rupee] in Bombay). Young producers began to incorporate elements of Indian social life and culture into cinema, others brought new ideas from across the world. Global audiences and markets soon became aware of India's film industry.


title: Cinema of India

text: In 1927, the British government, to promote the market in India for British films over American ones, formed the Indian Cinematograph Enquiry Committee. The ICC consisted of three British and three Indians, led by T. Rangachari, a Madras lawyer. This committee failed to bolster the desired recommendations of supporting British Film, instead recommending support for the fledgling Indian film industry, and their suggestions were set aside.


title: Cinema of India

text: The first Indian sound film was "Alam Ara" (1931, Ardeshir Irani). He also produced South India's first sound film, the Tamil–Telugu bilingual talking picture "Kalidas" (1931, H. M. Reddy).


title: Cinema of India

text: "Jumai Shasthi" was the first Bengali talkie. Chittoor Nagayya was one of the first multilingual filmmakers in India.


title: Cinema of India

text: East India Film Company produced its first Telugu film, "Savitri" (1933, C. Pullaiah), adapted from a stage play by Mylavaram Bala Bharathi Samajam. The film received an honorary diploma at the 2nd Venice International Film Festival.


title: Cinema of India

text: Jyoti Prasad Agarwala made his first film "Joymoti" (1935) in Assamese, and later made "Indramalati". The first film studio in South India, Durga Cinetone, was built in 1936 by Nidamarthi Surayya in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. The advent of sound to Indian cinema launched musicals such as "Indra Sabha" and "Devi Devyani", marking the beginning of song-and-dance in Indian films. By 1935, studios emerged in major cities such as Madras, Calcutta and Bombay as filmmaking became an established industry, exemplified by the success of "Devdas" (1935). The first colour film made in India was "Kisan Kanya" (1937, Moti B). "Vishwa Mohini" (1940) was the first Indian film to depict the Indian movie-making world.


title: Cinema of India

text: Swamikannu Vincent, who had built the first cinema of South India in Coimbatore, introduced the concept of "tent cinema" in which a tent was erected on a stretch of open land to screen films. The first of its kind was in Madras and called Edison's Grand Cinema Megaphone. This was due to the fact that electric carbons were used for motion picture projectors. Bombay Talkies opened in 1934 and Prabhat Studios in Pune began production of Marathi films. "Sant Tukaram" (1936) was the first Indian film to be screened at an international film festival, at the 1937 edition of the Venice Film Festival. The film was judged one of the three best films of the year. However, while Indian filmmakers sought to tell important stories, the British Raj banned "Wrath" (1930) and "Raithu Bidda" (1938) for broaching the subject of the Indian independence movement.


title: Cinema of India

text: The Indian "Masala film"—a term used for mixed-genre films that combined song, dance, romance, etc.—arose following the Second World War. During the 1940s, cinema in South India accounted for nearly half of India's cinema halls, and cinema came to be viewed as an instrument of cultural revival. The Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), an art movement with a communist inclination, began to take shape through the 1940s and the 1950s. IPTA plays, such as "Nabanna" (1944), prepared the ground for realism in Indian cinema, exemplified by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas's "Dharti Ke Lal" ("Children of the Earth", 1946). The IPTA movement continued to emphasize realism in films "Mother India" and "Pyaasa", among India's most recognizable cinematic productions.


title: Cinema of India

text: Following independence, the 1947 partition of India divided the nation's assets and a number of studios moved to Pakistan. Partition became an enduring film subject thereafter. The Indian government had established a Films Division by 1948, which eventually became one of the world's largest documentary film producers with an annual production of over 200 short documentaries, each released in 18 languages with 9,000 prints for permanent film theatres across the country.


title: Cinema of India

text: The period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s is regarded by film historians as the Golden Age of Indian cinema. This period saw the emergence of the Parallel Cinema movement, which emphasized social realism. Mainly led by Bengalis, early examples include "Dharti Ke Lal" (1946, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas), "Neecha Nagar" (1946, Chetan Anand), "Nagarik" (1952, Ritwik Ghatak) and "Do Bigha Zamin" (1953, Bimal Roy), laying the foundations for Indian neorealism and the Indian New Wave.


title: Cinema of India

text: "The Apu Trilogy" (1955–1959, Satyajit Ray) won prizes at several major international film festivals and firmly established the Parallel Cinema movement. It was influential on world cinema and led to a rush of coming-of-age films in art house theatres. Cinematographer Subrata Mitra developed the technique of bounce lighting, to recreate the effect of daylight on sets, during the second film of the trilogy and later pioneered other effects such as the photo-negative flashbacks and X-ray digressions.


title: Cinema of India

text: During the 1950s, Indian cinema reportedly became the world's second largest film industry, earning a gross annual income of in 1953. The government created the Film Finance Corporation (FFC) in 1960 to provide financial support to filmmakers. While serving as Information and Broadcasting Minister of India in the 1960s, Indira Gandhi supported the production of off-beat cinema through the FFC.


title: Cinema of India

text: Commercial Hindi cinema began thriving, including acclaimed films "Pyaasa" (1957) and "Kaagaz Ke Phool" (1959, Guru Dutt) "Awaara" (1951) and "Shree 420" (1955, Raj Kapoor). These films expressed social themes mainly dealing with working-class urban life in India; "Awaara" presented Bombay as both a nightmare and a dream, while "Pyaasa" critiqued the unreality of city life.


title: Cinema of India

text: Epic film "Mother India" (1957, Mehboob Khan) was the first Indian film to be nominated for the US-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and defined the conventions of Hindi cinema for decades. It spawned a new genre of dacoit films. "Gunga Jumna" (1961, Dilip Kumar) was a dacoit crime drama about two brothers on opposite sides of the law, a theme that became common in Indian films in the 1970s. "Madhumati" (1958, Bimal Roy) popularized the theme of reincarnation in Western popular culture.


title: Cinema of India

text: Actor Dilip Kumar rose to fame in the 1950s, and was the biggest Indian movie star of the time. He was a pioneer of method acting, predating Hollywood method actors such as Marlon Brando. Much like Brando's influence on New Hollywood actors, Kumar inspired Indian actors, including Amitabh Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah, Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.


title: Cinema of India

text: "Neecha Nagar" (1946) won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and Indian films competed for the award most years in the 1950s and early 1960s. Ray is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema, along with his contemporaries Dutt and Ghatak. In 1992, the "Sight & Sound" Critics' Poll ranked Ray at  7 in its list of Top 10 Directors of all time. Multiple films from this era are included among the greatest films of all time in various critics' and directors' polls, including "The Apu Trilogy", "Jalsaghar", "Charulata" "Aranyer Din Ratri", "Pyaasa", "Kaagaz Ke Phool", "Meghe Dhaka Tara", "Komal Gandhar", "Awaara", "Baiju Bawra", "Mother India", "Mughal-e-Azam" and "Subarnarekha" (also tied at No. 11).


title: Cinema of India

text: Sivaji Ganesan became India's first actor to receive an international award when he won the Best Actor award at the Afro-Asian film festival in 1960 and was awarded the title of Chevalier in the Legion of Honour by the French Government in 1995. Tamil cinema is influenced by Dravidian politics, with prominent film personalities C N Annadurai, M G Ramachandran, M Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa becoming Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu.


title: Cinema of India

text: By 1986, India's annual film output had increased to 833 films annually, making India the world's largest film producer. Hindi film production of Bombay, the largest segment of the industry, became known as "Bollywood".


title: Cinema of India

text: By 1996, the Indian film industry had an estimated domestic cinema viewership of 600million people, establishing India as one of the largest film markets, with the largest regional industries being Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films. In 2001, in terms of ticket sales, Indian cinema sold an estimated 3.6 billion tickets annually across the globe, compared to Hollywood's 2.6 billion tickets sold.


title: Cinema of India

text: Realistic Parallel Cinema continued throughout the 1970s, practised in many Indian film cultures. The FFC's art film orientation came under criticism during a Committee on Public Undertakings investigation in 1976, which accused the body of not doing enough to encourage commercial cinema.


title: Cinema of India

text: Hindi commercial cinema continued with films such as "Aradhana" (1969), "Sachaa Jhutha" (1970), "Haathi Mere Saathi" (1971), "Anand" (1971), "Kati Patang" (1971) "Amar Prem" (1972), "Dushman" (1972) and "Daag" (1973).


title: Cinema of India

text: By the early 1970s, Hindi cinema was experiencing thematic stagnation, dominated by musical romance films. Screenwriter duo Salim–Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar) revitalised the industry. They established the genre of gritty, violent, Bombay underworld crime films with "Zanjeer" (1973) and "Deewaar" (1975). They reinterpreted the rural themes of "Mother India" and "Gunga Jumna" in an urban context reflecting 1970s India, channelling the growing discontent and disillusionment among the masses, unprecedented growth of slums and urban poverty, corruption and crime, as well as anti-establishment themes. This resulted in their creation of the "angry young man", personified by Amitabh Bachchan, who reinterpreted Kumar's performance in "Gunga Jumna" and gave a voice to the urban poor.


title: Cinema of India

text: By the mid-1970s, Bachchan's position as a lead actor was solidified by crime-action films "Zanjeer" and "Sholay" (1975). The devotional classic "Jai Santoshi Ma" (1975) was made on a low budget and became a box office success and a cult classic. Another important film was "Deewaar" (1975, Yash Chopra), a crime film with brothers on opposite sides of the law which Danny Boyle described as "absolutely key to Indian cinema".


title: Cinema of India

text: The term "Bollywood" was coined in the 1970s, when the conventions of commercial Bombay-produced Hindi films were established. Key to this was Nasir Hussain and Salim–Javed's creation of the masala film genre, which combines elements of action, comedy, romance, drama, melodrama and musical. Their film "Yaadon Ki Baarat" (1973) has been identified as the first masala film and the first quintessentially Bollywood film. Masala films made Bachchan the biggest Bollywood movie star of the period. Another landmark was "Amar Akbar Anthony" (1977, Manmohan Desai). Desai further expanded the genre in the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Cinema of India

text: Commercial Hindi cinema grew in the 1980s, with films such as "Ek Duuje Ke Liye" (1981), "Disco Dancer" (1982), " Himmatwala" (1983), "Tohfa" (1984), "Naam" (1986), "Mr India" (1987), and "Tezaab" (1988).


title: Cinema of India

text: In the late 1980s, Hindi cinema experienced another period of stagnation, with a decline in box office turnout, due to increasing violence, decline in musical melodic quality, and rise in video piracy, leading to middle-class family audiences abandoning theatres. The turning point came with Indian blockbuster "Disco Dancer" (1982) which began the era of disco music in Indian cinema. Lead actor Mithun Chakraborty and music director Bappi Lahiri had the highest number of mainstream Indian hit movies that decade. At the end of the decade, Yash Chopra's "Chandni" (1989) created a new formula for Bollywood musical romance films, reviving the genre and defining Hindi cinema in the years that followed. Commercial Hindi cinema grew in the late 1980s and 1990s, with the release of "Mr. India" (1987), "Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak" (1988), "Chaalbaaz" (1989), "Maine Pyar Kiya" (1989), "Lamhe" (1991), "Saajan" (1991), "Khuda Gawah" (1992), "Khalnayak" (1993), "Darr" (1993), "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!" (1994), "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" (1995), "Dil To Pagal Hai" (1997), "Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya" (1998) and "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" (1998). Cult classic "Bandit Queen" (1994) directed by Shekhar Kapur received international recognition and controversy.


title: Cinema of India

text: In the late 1990s, there was a resurgence of Parallel Cinema in Bollywood, largely due to the critical and commercial success of crime films such as "Satya" (1998) and "Vaastav" (1999). These films launched a genre known as "Mumbai noir", reflecting social problems in the city.


title: Cinema of India

text: Since the 1990s, the three biggest Bollywood movie stars have been the "Three Khans": Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Salman Khan. Combined, they starred in the top ten highest-grossing Bollywood films, and have dominated the Indian box office since the 1990s. Shah Rukh Khan was the most successful for most of the 1990s and 2000s, while Aamir Khan has been the most successful since the late 2000s; according to "Forbes", Shah Rukh Khan is "arguably the world's biggest movie star" as of 2017, due to his immense popularity in India and China. Other notable Hindi film stars of recent decades include Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Hrithik Roshan, Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and Kajol.


title: Cinema of India

text: "Haider" (2014, Vishal Bhardwaj), the third instalment of the Indian Shakespearean Trilogy after "Maqbool" (2003) and "Omkara" (2006), won the "People's Choice Award" at the 9th Rome Film Festival in the Mondo Genere making it the first Indian film to achieve this honour.


title: Cinema of India

text: The 2000s and 2010s also saw the rise of a new generation of popular actors like Shahid Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Ayushmann Khurrana, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra, Sushant Singh Rajput, Kartik Aaryan, Arjun Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapur and Tiger Shroff, as well as actresses like Vidya Balan, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif, Kangana Ranaut, Deepika Padukone, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Shraddha Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Kriti Sanon with Balan and Ranaut gaining wide recognition for successful female-centric films such as "The Dirty Picture" (2011), "Kahaani" (2012), "Queen" (2014), "Tanu Weds Manu Returns" (2015) and "" (2019). Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukerji are among the few working actresses from the 2000s and late 1990s who successfully completed more than 20 years in the industry.


title: Cinema of India

text: B. Narsing Rao, K. N. T. Sastry, and A. Kutumba Rao garnered international recognition for their works in Parallel Cinema. Ethnographic films such as "Maa Ooru" (1987) won the 1992 Hungarian Visual Arts "Main Prize – Media Wave Award". "Thilaadanam" (2000) received "New Currents Award" at the 7th Busan International Film Festival. K. Viswanath's "Sankarabharanam" (1980) won the "Prize of the Public" at the "Besançon Film Festival of France" in the year 1981. Viswanath's "Swati Mutyam" (1986) was India's official entry to the 59th Academy Awards. Rajnesh Domalpalli's "Vanaja" (2006) won "Best First Feature Award" at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival.


title: Cinema of India

text: Ram Gopal Varma's "Siva" (1989), which attained cult following is one of the first Telugu films produced after the migration of Telugu film industry from Madras to Hyderabad to feature characters speaking the Telangana dialect. Varma was credited with the introduction of steadicams and new sound recording techniques in Telugu films. "Siva" attracted the young audience during its theatrical run, and its success encouraged filmmakers to explore a variety of themes and make experimental films.


title: Cinema of India

text: Chiranjeevi's works such as the comedy thriller "Chantabbai" (1986), the vigilante thriller "Kondaveeti Donga" (1990), the Western thriller "Kodama Simham" (1990), and the action thriller, "Gang Leader" (1991), popularized genre films with the highest estimated . Sekhar Kammula's "Dollar Dreams" (2000), which explored the conflict between American dreams and human feelings, re-introduced social realism to Telugu film which had stagnated in formulaic commercialism.


title: Cinema of India

text: War drama "Kanche" (2015, Krish Jagarlamudi) explored the 1944 Nazi attack on the Indian army in the Italian campaign of the Second World War, in a tale of caste-ism with technically brilliant cinematography. Sankalp Reddy explored submarine warfare in his directorial debut "Ghazi" (2017), based on the mysterious altercation between PNS Ghazi and INS Karanj during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Docudrama "Major" (2022, Sashi Kiran Tikka) was based on the life of Sandeep Unnikrishnan who was martyred in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.


title: Cinema of India

text: S. S. Rajamouli's epic duology "Baahubali", and alternate history film "RRR" are the only Indian films to receive the American Saturn Award for Best International Film. "Nashville Scene"s Jason Shawhan wrote about the event "the nationwide encore of "RRR" is American audiences reaching with outstretched arms to something so exciting and rock-solid entertaining that its success already happened without insular traditional media even mentioning it. This isn't America dipping a toe in Indian cinema — it's a victory lap".


title: Cinema of India

text: Tamil cinema established Madras (now Chennai) as a secondary film production centre in India, used by Hindi cinema, other South Indian film industries, and Sri Lankan cinema. Over the last quarter of the 20th century, Tamil films from India established a global presence through distribution to an increasing number of overseas theatres.


title: Cinema of India

text: The industry also inspired independent filmmaking in Sri Lanka and Tamil diaspora populations in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Western Hemisphere.