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Calls to boycott IFFI ‘madness’, says Rahul Rawail

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By Sugandha Rawal
Panaji, Nov 21 (IANS) Filmmaker Rahul Rawail, who is the acting jury head of the Indian Panorama section of the 48th IFFI after Sujoy Ghosh resigned in the wake of the exclusion of two jury-suggested films in the final list, says calls to boycott the movie gala is “madness”.

Rawail was a part of the jury headed by Ghosh, who had resigned after two films — Sanal Sasidharan’s Malayalam movie “S Durga” and Ravi Jadhav’s Marathi movie “Nude” — were ousted from the final list for the section at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2017.

“I just hope the festival goes well,” Rawail told IANS here.

The brouhaha over the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting overuling the jury’s decision had led several members of the film fraternity to demand that the industry skip the current edition of the fest.

To that, Rawail said: “Pagalpan hai (It is madness).”

The fest, which will go on till November 28, is under extra scrutiny for the exclusion of the two films, and also due to the stir around Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film “Padmavati”.

Interestingly, at a platform which claims to celebrate cinema, most attendees are refraining to talk about the row.

But Rawail was upfront.

He wonders whether the Indian classic “Mughal-E-Azam” would have released under the current political climate or not.

He said: “On ‘Padmavati’, I strongly stand with the filmmaker. He has made a film with a lot of conviction and lot of hard work. He is probably one of the best directors we have today. He is not going to play around with history.

“There is a debate that you can’t play around with history, and many people are saying that ‘How can you have fiction and history put together?’. I thought what happened to ‘Mughal-E-Azam’? Anarkali is a completely fictitious character. Anarkali doesn’t exist in history.

“The film stars Dilip Kumar… There was Dilip Kumar playing Salim and Prithviraj Kapoor. Someone even said that nobody protested at that time (at the time of the release of the 1960 film). I feel that it is a very stupid thing to say. I thought that means if we make ‘Mughal-E-Azam’ (again), will they ban it? They will not.”

“Padmavati” has been mired in controversy over conjectures that it “distorts history” regarding Rajput queen Padmavati, a contention that Bhansali has repeatedly denied. The film also features Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in lead roles, with Deepika Padukone playing Rani Padmavati.

The film has been deferred from its original December 1 release.

Rawail said: “Bhansali could not take things into his hands where he would change history. I think things need to be tackled in a better way. I admire Bhansali and Viacom18 Motion Pictures for agreeing to delay the film because it could have created a lot of trouble… They have taken a great step forward by letting it die down.”

A new date is yet to be announced, but “beheading” threats have been put out against Bhansali and Deepika.

Rawail called the violent threats a “stupid” act.

Rawail is happy to be on board for IFFI this year, and hopes that everything at the “festival goes well”. The fest will conclude on November 28.

Defending the ministry for dropping “S Durga” and “Nude”, he said: “‘Nude’ in any case was a completely incomplete film. ‘S Durga’ came to us as called ‘Sexy Durga’ but was censored as S Durga’. There were some changes made, which makes it a complete new film.

“You are applying for film A and you get a film calling it B, which is not part of the regulation.”

As for film buffs in Goa, he said: “Enjoy the films and enjoy the film fest”.

(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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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.

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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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