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Naseeruddin Shah wasn’t easily convinced for ‘The Hungry’: Director

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By Kishori Sud
Dharamsala, Nov 4 (IANS) Independent filmmaker Bornila Chatterjee has helmed a number of projects, be it a short film or a feature film, but when it came to convincing veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah to act for her in Indie feature “The Hungry”, it wasn’t very easy.

The 100 minute film relocates Shakespeare’s work “Titus Andronicus” to modern day India, where corruption, greed and revenge run amok at an extravagant wedding. In the adaptation, villain Tamora transforms into Tulsi (essayed by Tisca Chopra) and Titus transforms into Titus (essayed by Naseeruddin).

“With him it was interesting when it comes to convincing, because when he first met us he said: ‘I think Titus is the worst thing Shakespeare ever wrote, why the hell do you want to make this. And we thought ‘oh okay maybe this meeting is not going to go very well’,” Chatterjee told IANS on the sidelines of the sixth edition of Dharamshala International Film Festival here.

“When we went to his house, he was literally just siting there having just finished reading the play. So we talked a bit about it and he asked similar questions like ‘why now, why this, and we said that ‘it was great to meet you and we are leaving this script if you can then please do read it’. He texted after a few hours that he ‘loved the script and let’s make it happen’.

“With everyone there is always a bit of convincing which is required but it is all a part of the process, ” she added.

Why did she choose a story by Shakespeare which was so gory?

“For starters, the film came about as in 2015 in London, they were celebrating 400 years of Shakespeare. They basically decided that they are going to fund one Indian adaptation of a Shakespeare play because India shows tremendous interest in adaptations of Shakespeare plays. They wanted to fund one Independent micro budget film…

That is how ‘The Hungry’ happened,” added Chatterjee,A who has helmed projects like” White Lillies ” and” The Sun is Shining”.

She also believes that the film and the context is pretty much relevant with the atmosphere today.

“This one really felt like something really very relevant. It’s not something much about the violence as much as it is this face off between the families where you have a patriarch vs a matriarch, “said Chatterjee.

The four-day Dharmashala International Film Festival 2017 ends on Sunday.

(The writer’s trip is at the invitation of Dharamshala International Film Festival. Kishori Sud can be contacted at [email protected])

–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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