Entertainment
Filmmakers changing hero of Indian cinema: Ranbir Kapoor
Panaji: A coming-of-age role in “Wake Up Sid”, a troubled musician in “Rockstar”, a deaf and mute prankster in “Barfi!” and an aggressive man of great ambitions in “Bombay Velvet” — clearly, Bollywood’s quintessential ‘heroism’ does not match actor Ranbir Kapoor’s sensibilities. He says it’s possible thanks to filmmakers who are out to redefine the ‘hero’ of Indian cinema.
“Cinema is progressing…It is names like Anurag Kashyap, Anurag Basu, Imtiaz Ali and Ayan Mukerji, who are bringing these characters in. They are changing the hero of Indian cinema,” Ranbir, who finds “heroism in the underhero”, told IANS in a chat here while promoting “Bombay Velvet”.
He says the “space” is opening up for “other characters” even if “there will always be a ‘Dabangg’, a ‘Singham’ or a Raj from ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge'”.
“It’s not only about heroism. I feel very lucky that I can be part of these filmmakers’ characters because these are the parts which excite me and which I’d love watching. If I’d love watching something, I would do it with conviction and the audience will enjoy it too,” said the 32-year-old charmer, who comes from a family of cinestars.
Personally, he says — “I can’t see myself as a hero.”
“I can’t see myself punching someone who flies 20 ft away. I always find heroism in the underhero. More than the achievement, the honest trying of a character and struggle to get it… I think that has a greater glory than being a winner.
“In that sense, the struggle is more important than the victory…in life also. So, I am more comfortable playing real and relatable characters. I tried playing a hero in ‘Besharam’, and I fell flat on my face because it doesn’t come naturally to me,” said the actor, whose unimpressive debut with “Saawariya” in 2007 didn’t deter him from choosing roles with a difference.
In Anurag Kashyap’s “Bombay Velvet” too, Ranbir takes the unbeaten path of embodying a man on an unflinching quest for success, fame and power. His look seems to reflect a lot of his world famous grandfather Raj Kapoor.
The actor admits that “there were references to the look of the character”, but he is “not inspired as far as performance is concerned”.
“I look a certain way and people have a perception of my image, so it was important that I drastically change my look for the film. So yes, there’s a bit of Kishore Kumar from the 1950s, Raj Kapoor, Robert De Niro from “Raging Bull”. But those were just superficial references,” he said, adding that there’s “no ‘Raj Kapoorness’ that I’ve put in ‘Bombay Velvet'”.
Admitting that it’s hard to escape parallels with his grandfather, Ranbir said he has “so far been quite safe from being compared to my family as I have an individualistic approach to my work”.
“I think the only Raj Kapoor channelising I did was in ‘Saawariya’. Post that, I was just trying to be me,” he said.
After “Bombay Velvet” releases on May 15, Ranbir will continue his journey of experimenting with roles.
“I have ‘Tamasha’ with Deepika Padukone. And then ‘Jagga Jasoos’, which is a detective film and I play an 18-year-old with a stammer. It’s a musical,” he said.
Then, he also has Karan Johar’s “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil” with Anushka Sharma and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
“It’s an urban love story and I’m really looking forward to that. Sometimes you need to do an urban, light film between intense films… it makes you feel free and go back to the basics,” said the actor, who will also play a superhero in Ayan Mukerji’s film, which will start next year.
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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