Entertainment
Pakistani actress Sanam Saeed to play an Indian
Lahore: Pakistani actress and model Sanam Saeed, who found popularity in India with her TV show “Zindagi Gulzar Hai”, is now going to play an Indian girl in Nasir Khan’s romantic thriller film “Bachaana”.
“Bachaana” is a journey of a sweet and bubbly Indian girl Aalia, played by Sanam, who undergoes a series of unfortunate events and is forced to place her faith in a man she hardly knows. That man, Vicky (Mohib Mirza), is a Pakistani driving a taxi in Mauritius.
The film, set to hit screens both in India and Pakistan, follows the couple’s adventurous journey of love.
Sanam says that through this movie, she is trying to bridge the gap between both the countries.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the script and Aalia’s character. She was very unlike the roles I had played before. All of us, in whatever way we can, are wanting to and trying to bridge the gaps and differences between India and Pakistan,” she said in a statement.
“We have been die-hard fans of their (Indian) movies for decades, and now they are enjoying our storytelling through the small screen. Our actors are crossing borders and so are our stories now. And that is what I saw in ‘Bachaana’. The film is light and easy. I was really enjoying getting into Aalia’s character with the mannerisms, clothes and diction,” she added.
Sanam also says that she had references and advice on Indian girls from the team they were working with.
“At the end of the day though, Aalia is a south Asian girl that I am very familiar with — whether she be Indian or Pakistani. This is a contemporary, easy, breezy, feel good rom-com. I’m sure audiences for India and Pakistan will both enjoy this fun zesty story,” she said.
“Bachaana”, produced by Rizwan Saeed, is the first feature film of Nasir Khan as a director; he gained prominence at the Mumbai International Film Festival for his documentary “Made in Pakistan”.
With cast and crew from both Pakistan and India, the film is said to have captured cross-border relations on and off screen. Filmed in Mauritius, the production team conducted a large talent hunt to find actors in the neutral landscape.
“From the script to the actual shoot in Mauritius, it truly has been an adventure and if I were to sum up the film in one line, I would use the following dialogue from the movie “Ladki Hindustani ho ya Pakistani, ladki ladki hoti hai (A girl is a girl, whether she’s an Indian or Pakistani,” said Khan.
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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