Entertainment
Indian stories need global exposure: ‘Lunchbox’ director Ritesh Batra
New Delhi: He took the taste and flavours of Mumbai’s dabbawallas on a global trail with his first feature film, “The Lunchbox”, which managed the rare feat of appealing to international critics and Indian audiences alike. Ritesh Batra – the man behind the film – says he is on a mission to take Indian stories to the world by making his films a window to India and its culture.
The worldwide success of “The Lunchbox” has landed Batra an opportunity to direct a British film based on Julian Barnes’ novel “The Sense of an Ending”, featuring Oscar-winning actor Jim Broadbent. Just before leaving for Britain, Batra spoke about the need of telling local Indian stories with a global appeal and how he will continue to be a flag bearer for the same.
“It is important for me to tell Indian stories, which are universal at heart, to the world. Take America, for example. When you go there, you don’t feel that you are in a foreign country and that is due to the influx of American content in Hollywood’s films and TV shows.
“People should feel that they have already been to India through our stories. And that is really what I like to do,” Batra told IANS in a candid tete-a-tete over the phone from Mumbai.
The director feels the film fraternity must work in unity to take audiences across the world on an Indian voyage through the silver screen.
“I think we need to keep doing that as a community. I want to keep on doing that. It is important for all of us”.
He did it himself with “The Lunchbox” by weaving a love story of a lovelorn wife and a lonely man, played by Nimrat Kaur and Irrfan Khan, through a mistaken delivery of a dabba (lunchbox).
The 2013 film went globetrotting and was lauded at several international film extravaganzas in Cannes, Zurich, London and Toronto. It was also nominated in the Film Not in the English Language category of the prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards.
Batra says the film’s success came as a “gift” to him, and even though he is now out to make a British film, the core of his filmmaking will be “to tell Indian stories to the world”.
He said: “It is something I always wanted to do and will continue to do so.”
This attempt has also painted a success story for filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan, whose indie project “Masaan”, centred on a group of people in Varanasi, won the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) award at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival this year.
Batra, who has also directed short films like “Gareeb Nawaz’s Taxi” and “The Masterchef”, says it’s a good time for independent cinema, but points out that there is need to build audience for such projects in India.
“When films like ‘Court’ or ‘Masaan’ succeed, I get thrilled because I think that one person’s success is everybody’s success. If an independent movie succeeds, it makes my life easier,” he said, and added that “we have to keep building an audience for movies that matter to us within India as well”.
Batra is also in favour of entertaining, simple and powerful stories like “Piku” and “Tanu Weds Manu Returns”, which are a sign of a wave of change in Bollywood. He says the numbers garnered by such movies talk for themselves and indicate what the audience is looking for.
On the home turf, Batra is in the process of working on a script called “Photograph”, which will be based in Mumbai and revolves around lust.
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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