Entertainment
Easier to reach mass audience via my kind of films now: Irrfan
By Subhash K. Jha
Mumbai, Jan 3 (IANS) Actor Irrfan Khan, whose next international film is “Puzzle”, says he wants 2018 to surprise him just like the year gone by, in which he was able to cross the “bridge” between being a critics’ favourite to the ‘popular’ tag on his terms.
Excerpts from an interview:
Q. How do you look back on 2017? And can we expect from Irrfan in 2018?
For me, the year closed with a bang. The most interesting thing was, I was honoured at the Dubai International Film Festival along with Cate Blanchett who is my most favourite actor. So it couldn’t get any better for me. It has been a great year not only in terms of the releases also special memories of my films “The Song Of Scorpions” going to Locarno and “Doob” winning many international awards.
Finally, the long journey from critics to popular acceptance bridged through “Hindi Medium” and “Qarib Qarib Singlle”. I want 2018 to surprise me as well.
Q. Congratulations, you’ve won a popular award for “Hindi Medium”. This is quite a change from the ‘critics’ awards that you usually get. To what do you attribute the mass popularity of “Hindi Medium”?
A. “Hindi Medium” has been able to crack the magic of marrying content with popularity.
I am happy that the bridge has been crossed from ‘critic’ to ‘popular’ on my own terms. I didn’t have to go the so-called massy route. I must tell you that though I won for “Hindi Medium”, I was nominated for the “Qarib Qarib Singlle” role in the popular category as well. “Qarib Qarib Singlle” has also performed well at the box office.
Q. Which of the two was more difficult to do, and why?
A. For “Hindi Medium”, the entire effort went into making an aspirational but fantastic story into a relatable tale, whereas in “Qarib Qarib Singlle”, my effort went into making the role which is fantastic and aspirational as relatable as possible. So in a way, the two roles had to be approached from opposite directions.
Q. At this juncture of your career, how important is it for your performances to reach a wide audience?
A. It has always been important. But the same time, I couldn’t ignore my need to tell the stories in my way and not compromising on the kind of films I wanted to do and reach a mass audience. So, I am happy of the audiences’ need now to watch fresher and newer content. Hence, it is becoming easier to reach a wider audience, a mass audience through my kind of films. So at this juncture, it’s all coming together and happening organically.
Q. Do you see the space between mass entertainers and non-mainstream cinema closing up now?
It began a few years back as Hollywood cinema was becoming stronger and stronger. With time, we are all witness to how regional cinema is becoming bigger. Hindi cinema can no longer ignore the audience’s need for fresher content. It is now a necessity to have fresher way of story telling if Hindi cinema wants to remain big and survive.
–IANS
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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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