Entertainment
We’re trying to make good cinema: Umesh Shukla
Mumbai: Film director Umesh Shukla today stated that he is trying to make good cinema and there should be no attempts to stop a film once it is passed by the censor board.
In an interview, Shukla has spoken about facing protests for “OMG – Oh My God!”, which had later won a National Film Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; his views on “PK” and the similarities between his own film and the Aamir Khan-starrer.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q. “PK” has been compared with your film “…Oh My God!”. Both seem to have got themselves into trouble with right-wing organisations?
A. Why trouble filmmakers who are trying to do something out of the box? We’re trying to make good cinema. And it’s not as if audiences have objected to “…Oh My God!” or “PK”. Why not protest against films that glorify goondaism? We aren’t forcing anyone to watch these films. There should be no attempt to stop a film once it is passed by the censor board.
Q. Your film which also attacked organised religion, didn’t get attacked so vehemently?
A. They had protested against my film. In Jalandhar, they had burnt posters and vandalised theatres. But not on this level. The protests against “PK” are far more vehement.
Q. When in fact, “PK” puts its points forward far more gently than your film?
A. That’s Rajkumar Hirani’s style. He makes feelgood films. His style is very different from mine. Raju Hirani, (writer) Abhijat Joshi and Aamir Khan are among my favourite people in cinema. I hate to see them targeted in this way.
Q. There are many points of similarity between “…Oh My God!” and “PK”?
A. Yes, there are similarities between “PK” and my film. It’s the genre. You can’t change the basic idea. If you make a love story, “I love you” is bound to show up somewhere. Why such a hue cry over the similarities? “…Oh My God!” came first. To remove the similar plot points from “PK” was very difficult. If I was in their place I wouldn’t have known what to do. They’ve done such a fine job of giving a new twist to the theme.
Q. Your Gujarati play “Kanjilal Versus Kanjilal”, about organised religion, has been running for years?
A. That’s right. And no one has objected. The play and the film “…Oh My God!” aren’t anti-religion. They’re against wrong religious practices. We are against some aspects of organised religion. Many religious sectors including the Brahma Kumaris and the Radha Saomis appreciated our film “…Oh My God!”. They didn’t feel threatened by the film. We had screened “…Oh My God!” for Shankaracharya before release. They had no issues with the film.
Q. But many Hindu organisations have protested against “PK”?
A. I wonder why people have so many issues with “PK”! I don’t understand it. Why don’t the protesters sit and talk with Raju Hirani and the “PK” team. And it isn’t as if we’re only against commercialisation of Hinduism. In “…Oh My God!” we had asked why place a ‘chaadar’ on a dargah, why not on a poor homeless person?
Q. Makes sense.
A. Whether the Hindu religion or any other, the wrong aspects must be condemned. I get so many messages accusing me of being anti-religion.
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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