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If you smelt a rat, you’d rather keep away: Vidya on casting couch

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Mumbai, Oct 26 (IANS) Actress Vidya Balan says she protected herself against “sleazy predators” and “casting couch” in the industry.

During an interview on the CNN-News 18 show “Straight Talk with Vidya Balan”, Vidya opened up about the clamour around sexual harassment in showbiz after Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was named by multiple actresses and models for rape and assault.

The question about why the women remained silent has been put up multiple times.

According to Vidya, “You can’t judge when women should speak about it or why they didn’t speak about it earlier”, read a statement on excerpts from her conversation.

Asked if the “culture of silence” has existed in the Indian film fraternity as in the west where the casting couch and sleazy predators are an open secret, she said: “I’m a living example of the fact that not everyone is a predator”.

“I come from a privileged background, so I always gave the vibe that I don’t need this, I’m only doing this as a passion, I’m very serious about this… But I won’t react with people in a way that was personal. Almost err on the side of caution. Maybe it’s also a middle-class thing. If you smelt a rat, you’d rather keep away. That was my way of protecting myself.

“But I have heard of people who had been absolutely fine with me, going and threatening, propositioning other women and I would tell some of them you shouldn’t keep quiet about it and they would say, ‘I don’t want to be known for this controversy’. And there’s also fear that other producers won’t give you work. It seems like if you speak about it, people won’t want to work with you.

“I always thought that at that level with that kind of success, female actors in Hollywood would not keep quiet and tolerate sexual harassment. But maybe at that level you have more to lose or as much to lose,” Vidya added.

The “Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh” actress, who has portrayed strong women-oriented roles on screen, says she has not faced the casting couch herself, but said it is so because she deliberately walked away before anyone could say anything.

“You get a vibe and I would walk away because I wanted to be safe. Having said that, whatever you want to do for the sake of your career or your life, no one should be judging you either way. You would be blamed previously, so people wouldn’t talk about it because fingers would be pointed at you,” said the 38-year-old actress.

The episode will be aired on Thursday.

–IANS
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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

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.

CasinoDays India

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.

 

CasinoDays India

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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