Entertainment
Neil glad about carving niche in negative roles
Mumbai, Feb 1 (IANS) Actor Neil Nitin Mukesh, who played a negative role in Rohit Shetty’s “Golmaal Again”, says he is glad about carving a niche for himself in the negative zone.
Neil, despite his chocolate boy looks, mostly features in negative characters in movie.
Talking about this inclination, Neil said: “I did negative roles from the beginning of my career. Be it in ‘Johnny Gaddaar’, ‘Saat Khoon Maaf’, ‘David’… I don’t look at roles as positive or negative. I just see that whether that character will create impact on screen or not, irrespective of screen time of that character.
“So it doesn’t make difference to me. As an actor, I feel you need to have conviction when you go out there. At least, I am glad that in the aspect of negative roles, I have carved niche for myself.”
Neil attended Atharva Foundation’s special initiative to pay tribute to the Indian armed forces, along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, as well as Vikram Gokhale, Aftab Shivdasani, Kapil Dev, Madhur Bhandarkar and Rohini Hattangadi here on Wednesday.
Neil also spoke about his upcoming film “Saaho”, a multi-lingual film starring Prabhas and Shraddha Kapoor. Neil once again plays a negative character.
“‘Saaho’ is shaping up really well. We are now preparing for action sequences of ‘Saaho’. Sujeeth is very good. He is only 26 years old but is a brilliant director. I gained weight for ‘Saaho’ but now I have to reduce that. I am finding it a bit difficult. But I think that transformation will be fun,” he said.
On Atharva Foundation’s initiative where dignitaries felicitated some Indian soldiers and their families, Neil said: “I am grateful that Sunil Rane and Atharva Foundation invited me for this initiative. As an actor, I can only say that there is lot of difference between real and reel life and because of these people (Indian soldiers), we are living happily and beautifully.”
Asked if he would like to play an army man in a film, Neil said: “Why not? It is not because the fact that I will get an opportunity to hold the gun or wear the uniform of an army officer, but if any filmmaker offers me role of an army man, then I would love to do it only to honour those people, who fought for us.”
Apart from “Saaho”, Neil will also be seen in “Firrkie”, along with Kay Kay Menon, Karan Singh Grover and Sandeepa Dhar.
–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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