Entertainment
OMG! What made bollywood actress Esha Deol work as a chef?
Actress Esha Deol, who hasn’t been seen on the big screen for a while, will play a chef in a Hindi short film “Cakewalk”.
The film is to be directed by her mother Hema Malini’s biographer Ram Kamal Mukherjee, and Abhra Chakraborty.
In the short, Esha will depict the professional and personal journey of a woman in Indian society.
“The idea of making a film came into Ram Kamal’s mind while he was interviewing me for his book on my mother,” Esha, who took a break from films after marriage and motherhood, said in a statement.
Last October, she and husband Bharat Takhtani had a baby girl Radhya, and since then she has been enjoying the motherhood phase.
On the film, Esha said: “I think the idea came to Ram Kamal’s mind after he interacted with a couple of working women from various walks of life. He has beautifully woven those incidents into his narrative.”
Mukherjee, who has penned the film’s story and screenplay, said: “I always wanted to tell a story… It was just a matter of time. It was actually Esha who inspired me to direct the film.”
Chakraborty, who has co-directed “Cakewalk”, earlier assisted National Award winning Bengali director Bappaditya Bandhopadhya in “Elar Chaar Adhyay”.
“Cakewalk”, which will also introduce model-turned-television actor Tarun Malhotra as the male lead, will be shot extensively in Kolkata by the end of March.
Esha is happy she would be able to wrap up the project soon.
“Honestly, my priority is my daughter Radhya now. I have requested my husband to take a break for a few days and just be with Radhya while I wrap up the shoot in one schedule. And I am lucky to have someone like Bharat,” she said.
The project is produced by Dinesh Gupta, Shailendra Kumar and Aritra Das, under the banner of Assorted Motion Pictures and SS One Entertainments.
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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