Entertainment
An abduction that took away sheen of Malayalam filmdom (2017 in retrospect)
By Sanu George
Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 27 (IANS) The year 2017 is one that the Malayalam film industry would perhaps like to forget, given the unexpected and shocking after-effects of the abduction of a popular actress.
The industry was stunned when news broke in February that the young actress had been kidnapped after sunset when she was on her way to a friend’s place in the commercial capital of the state, Kochi.
After a two-hour ordeal in a vehicle, she was dumped near the home of a well-known director, to whom she narrated what she had gone through.
Soon, the police began their work and, in a week’s time, members of the gang that abducted her were arrested. When everyone thought that things had returned to normalcy, came news that the abduction was well planned and that it had been masterminded by Dileep — Malayalam cinema’s 50-year-old reigning superstar.
With state police chief Loknath Behra contending there was enough evidence to nail Dileep, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took the firm position that the law should take its course, sans interference. Despite pressure from the top brass of the film industry, Dileep was arrested and it was only after 85 days in jail that he was granted bail.
With the chargesheet now filed naming Dileep as the eighth accused, it appears that the law will catch up with anyone who breaks it.
The incident had its fallout in the industry. The powerful actors’ body — the Association of Malayalam Movies Artistes (AMMA) — headed by Lok Sabha member and comedian Innocent (an independent supported by the Chief Minister Vijayan’s Communist Party of India-Marxist), saw murmurings with ageing superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal failing to get their points of view across after strong opposition surfaced against giving a clean chit to Dileep, especially from upcoming superstar Prithviraj and his supporters.
Following this, AMMA was forced to remove Dileep from the treasurer’s post and he was also suspended from the association. With differences of opinion continuing, AMMA has been unable to even call a meeting of its executives after July.
For Dileep, however, there was one saving grace — the box office success of his film “Rama Leela” that was released when he was in jail.
A fallout of the Dileep episode was the formation of a new organisation for women in the Malayalam film industry. Women from various fields — from actresses to those behind the scenes — got together under the leadership of Dileep’s former wife Manju Warrier to launch the Women in Cinema Collective to identify the problems faced by women in the industry and explore ways to address them.
The new body had the backing of Chief Minister Vijayan who also announced the setting up of a new committee to study the issues faced by the women in the industry and directed it to submit a detailed report, which would be looked into.
Beyond the Dileep saga, it seemed all else was as usual in the industry. As in the recent past, the magic of superstar Mammootty appears to be on the wane, with three of his films failing to click at the box office in 2017. A fourth film is slated to hit the screens during the Christmas season.
As for the other reigning superstar, Mohanlal, his four releases for the year were nowhere near the huge success he had with two films in 2016.
Overall, because of the fallout of the abduction and the arrest of Dileep, it appears the sway that AMMA had over the political fabric of the state has suffered a huge setback. To some extent, the star status of those in the industry also suffered – there were sections of people who were not keen to go to the theatres to watch their films.
In the New Year, all eyes will be on the trial in the abduction case. And with the future of Dileep hanging in balance, the fluid state in the industry is only likely to continue.
(Sanu George 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
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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.
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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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