Entertainment
For meaningful cinema, we need freedom to express: Sharmila Tagore
Mumbai, Oct 13 (IANS) Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore has said the filmmakers need the freedom to express their thoughts and an open environment to come up with meaningful cinema.
Sharmila said this on Thursday night while interacting with the audience after being felicitated with “Excellence in Cinema” award in the opening ceremony of the 19th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star in Mumbai.
She also shared her experience of balancing between Bengali and Hindi film industry, the films of Satyajit Ray and Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
Tagore said: “Mumbai makes me understand the plurality and diversity of our culture, at the same time the commonality that exists within that.”
“For an actor the moment we live for, is between ‘start sounds, to cut’, and every member of the crew prepares us to live that moment. I would also like to add to make meaningful cinema, we need the open environment and absolute freedom to express thoughts.”
The “Excellence in Cinema” award was presented to Sharmila by Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan and Neeta Ambani. The ceremony was hosted by actor Kunal Kapoor and Aditi Rao Hydari.
The evening was graced by Amruta Fadnavis, John Madden, Konkona Sensharma, Kabir Khan, Rajkummar Rao, Kabir Khan and Hansal Mehta besides others.
Iconic Chinese film director Chen Kaige was also felicitated with the “Excellence In Cinema (International) Award”.
“I admire Indian cinema, it has become a cultural hub for India for many many years. I have developed an interest in Indian cinema and I think we can have more cultural exchange through cinema from both sides,” Kaige said in a video message from China.
Anurag Kashyap’s “Mukkabaaz” was screened as the opening film of the festival and it was the Asian premiere of the film.
This year, the festival is also conducting various workshops on film reviews, children’s films, writers and distributors conversations among various activities.
Italian actress Monica Bellucci will be gracing the festival on October 15.
The film fest will continue until October 18.
–IANS
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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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