Entertainment
‘Bombay Velvet’ team in Goa, sets new precedent for film promotion
By Radhika Bhirani
Panaji: Team “Bombay Velvet” is having a “small little party” in Goa! Instead of doing the mundane and arduous city-to-city visits ahead of the movie’s release, they have congregated here along with film journalists from four cities for a “celebration”.
Filmmaker Karan Johar, who acts in the film conjectures it is “trend-setting” for Bollywood.
“This feel like it’s done in Hollywood,” said Karan, adding: “This will set a precedent for film promotion (in Bollywood) and it will be trend-setting. As a film producer, I’m definitely going to do this often.”
It is quite a jamboree with about 100 people assembled at a south Goa resort. Journalists, both print and TV, from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad landed here on Monday, joining the film’s team – actors Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Karan, Vivaan Shah, Satyadeep Misra and Siddhartha Basu; director Anurag; producers Vikramaditya Motwane and Vikas Bahl; composer Amit Trivedi, writers Vasan Bala and S.Thanikachalam; and officials of Fox Star Studios, which has co-produced and is distributing the film.
Breaking away from his superstar image, Ranbir, who is among the top-rung actors of Hindi cinema of the present day, looked cool, casual and relaxed as he sat on the floor to chat up with a mixed group of scribes.
“This was my idea,” he said, referring to the “small little party” to celebrate the hardwork that has gone behind the period drama, which encapsulates the era of 1950s and 1960s.
“We felt that if we get everyone together, it’s going to be a nice change. Besides, when we travel from one city to another, we barely get five minutes with each person…but this way, everyone gets to explore the movie in a better way,” said the actor.
As a bonus, those in attendance were also given a special sneak peek into seven minutes of the movie, which is due to hit screens on May 15.
From the look of it, it seemed like a gripping drama which will teleport viewers to a bygone era — courtesy the detailing in costume, makeup, set design, the body language, the language and the of course, the jazz!
Talking of jazz — a live experience of the ‘Hindi Jazz’, developed by the talented Amit Trivedi, is also included as part of the promotion plan.
A source said the effort was to “make the media happy”.
But like the filmmakers themselves say “content is the king”, one has to wait and watch if “Bombay Velvet” — which according to Fox Star Studios CEO Vijay Singh, is “the kind of cinema we need to start making because the audience is changing” — is truly in sync with the taste of the evolving Indian film audience.
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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