Entertainment
Don’t know anything about IFFI protests, ‘Padmavati’ stir: Muzaffar Ali
By Sugandha Rawal
Panaji, Nov 21 (IANS) There are calls to boycott the 48th International Film Festival of India over the stir around “Padmavati” release and the exclusion of “S Durga” and “Nude” from IFFI’s Indian Panorama section. But filmmaker Muzaffar Ali doesn’t want to comment about it and says that he has no idea about the controversy.
Asked about his stance on all the debates, Muzaffar Ali told IANS: “I don’t know anything about that. It is a full different story… I have no experience or idea about it.”
“Padmavati”, featuring Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, has been mired in controversy over conjectures that it “distorts history” regarding Rajput queen Padmavati, a contention that Bhansali has repeatedly denied.
The release date of the film has been pushed, but some fringes are demanding ban on the movie. Many film stars have come forward to condemn this and call it an act of bullying.
On the hand, filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh resigned as the head of the jury of the Indian Panorama Section of the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) when “S Durga” and “Nude” didn’t made it to the list. Scriptwriter Apurva Asrani and filmmaker Gyan Correa also resigned.
Muzaffar Ali is the director of the classic Bollywood movie “Umrao Jaan”, and his last directorial “Jaanisaar” released in 2015. At IFFI, he heads the International Competition jury.
He might not be willing to talk about the controversy, but Muzaffar Ali did share his vision for the future of Indian cinema.
The filmmaker said: “It depends on makers. We need to create breed of makers who look at cinema in its biggest avatar, in its most sacred form. All this will make a lot of difference to the future of Indian cinema.”
“There is a need to evolve and arrive…A kind of wisdom in cinema is very important.. It has to prevail,” he added.
Is it happening at the moment?
“It should happen…The world is moving ahead, we can’t afford to be isolated,” said Muzaffar Ali.
(Sugandha Rawal’s trip to Goa is at the invitation of the organisers. She can be contacted at [email protected])
–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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