Entertainment
Will be blown away if I get a National Award: Alia Bhatt
New Delhi : She is on a winning spree at various award galas for her impactful portrayal of a Bihari migrant in “Udta Punjab”. And even though she doesn’t work for trophies, the young and versatile Alia Bhatt says she will be blown away if she gets a National Award.
Having won the Best Actress trophy at the recently-held Filmfare Awards and Screen Awards, Alia’s deglamourised performance as a victim of drug abuse in “Udta Punjab” could be one of the frontrunners for the Best Actress category at the upcoming 64th National Film Awards.
“I will be blown away if I get it. It’s an honour to win a National Award. I don’t know if it’s possible, but if it happens, of course, I will be very glad,” Alia told IANS.
However, Alia says she will not be disappointed even if she doesn’t get it.
“With awards, you are rewarded for just your efforts. I don’t think of it as the be-all and end-all. I don’t work for awards, but the year that you get them, it’s just that you feel very grateful and you feel very glad that your efforts have been recognised.
“There’s nothing else to feel about it. You shouldn’t take it too seriously; and if you don’t get it, that doesn’t mean that your career is over,” added the daughter of veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and Soni Razdan.
Starting her career in the Hindi film industry at a young age with the 2012 film “Student of the Year”, Alia, who turns 24 on March 15, has carved out a niche for herself in Bollywood in a short time span through her roles in movies like “Highway”, “2 States” and “Dear Zindagi”.
“More than me, I want other people to say whether it is the high point or low point in my career. For me, these are just points that I wanted to achieve… I started at a young age. It’s been five years now. But for me, I don’t understand what’s younger or older. I don’t understand age,” Alia said, adding that she wants to “work like this even when I am 40 or 50 or 80, if possible”.
For her choice of roles, Alia says she follows her instinct.
“There is no thought process while taking up new roles. You just go with an instinct. I don’t want to play the same type of characters every time. I don’t want people to say that Alia only does these kinds of films — which is why my choice of films is very different, because I want to satisfy my wants,” Alia said.
She wants to try all genres.
“I want to do action, comedy, love story or a biopic — I want to do everything. That’s what I think about while choosing a film. Each time, I want to do different from what I did last,” she said.
Alia is currently busy promoting her forthcoming entertainer “Badrinath Ki Dulhania” and said that, like her previous work, doing this film was also a challenge for her.
“Every film that I pick up is a sort of challenge for me. ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’ was challenging because it is (set) in a different place altogether. I am playing a girl from Kota. She is a small-town girl and very different from other characters that I have played.
“Through such films, you have to make the audience smile and cry at the same time — that itself is a challenge,” she said.
The film is slated to release on March 10.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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