Entertainment
Never faced issues in Bollywood because I’m a woman: Tanuja Chandra
New Delhi, Feb 9 (IANS) “Qarib Qarib Singlle” director Tanuja Chandra says she has never faced issues in showbiz on the basis of her gender.
Asked if it’s difficult for female directors to function in the industry, Chandra told IANS: “It’s not so much the gender as the type of subject a director chooses to make, which poses a problem most often.
“I’ve never really faced issues because I’m a woman. It’s the unusual subjects I’ve chosen for my films that have had resistance. So if you want to make anything that doesn’t fit into a certain box or label or genre, you will find the road difficult.”
Chandra, who has directed films like “Dushman”, “Sangharsh” and “Sur – The Melody of Life”, feels that there aren’t enough female directors in the country.
“The number has grown since when I started out, but only by a small amount. When there will be many, many more women directing movies, I truly believe storytelling will get better,” she added.
Chandra’s directorial starring acclaimed actor Irrfan Khan comes after nine years. She helmed “Hope and a Little Sugar” in 2008.
Why such a long gap?
“For a director, the journey is far longer than for an actor or even a writer and producer. One has to work on scripts and then pitch them to potential producers and actors — all this takes longer than people realise. It only catches peoples’ attention at release time!
“So I was, in fact, working on screenplays throughout the time you call a ‘gap’ — and a couple of projects had reached the shooting stage but then were stopped for various reasons. ‘QQS’ fortunately, was not one of those! It reached the production stage and was successfully released.”
“Qarib Qarib Singlle”, which will premiere on February 17 on &pictures, also stars southern star Parvathy.
Chandra says it was exciting to work with the actress.
“She is disciplined and hard-working, which is basically the South ethic on set. She was able to match my manic energy! She also has a fairly good command on the language because she has studied in Hindi medium schools. She is very smart and is fun to work with,” she added.
–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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