Entertainment
‘Baahubali’ to open new doors for Dolby Atmos in Indian cinema
Chennai: The release of S.S. Rajamouli’s highly anticipated Rs.250 crore multilingual motion picture “Baahubali S.S. Rajamouli” in Dolby Atmos will encourage more number of Indian filmmakers to adopt the latest sound technology to provide engaging cinema experience, says Pankaj Kedia of Dolby Laboratories.
“‘Baahubali’ has paved way to very good response from exhibitors in Andhra and Telangana. This was a market where we had the least number of screens, but thanks to ‘Baahubali’ and upcoming film ‘Rudhramadevi’, we have witnessed a considerable rise in the number of Atmos screens in the states,” Kedia, senior regional director – India, South East Asia, ANZ of Dolby, told.
Atmos unleashes the potential of sound in storytelling by giving filmmakers the creative freedom to easily place or move sounds anywhere in the movie theatre.
Thanks to “Baahubali”, which releases in cinemas worldwide on Friday, several exhibitors across the country have added additional screens with the technology.
“The quality of the content is amazing. I haven’t seen anything like ‘Baahubali’ in India ever. And since it’s releasing in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam, we’re targeting to release it in all the 100 Atmos screens in the country, depending upon how the shows will be programmed,” he said.
In south alone, “Baahubali” is expected to release in over 50 Atmos facilitated movie screens.
First introduced in India in 2012 with superstar Rajinikanth-starrer “Sivaji 3D”, Atmos has successfully released 100 Indian film titles.
The company’s journey so far has been very successful.
“Considering we had just one screen when we started a couple of years ago, it’s very encouraging to see we have come this far. The excitement we’re seeing from filmmakers and exhibitors is proof to our success,” Kedia said, and added that actor Suriya’s recently released Tamil thriller “Massu” was their 100th title.
“What’s really encouraging is that no longer conversations are about the cost involved, as filmmakers are more concerned about providing the best experience for audience. It’s more about enhancing storytelling with the technology,” he added.
Globally, the company has approximately 1,000 screens and 300 titles to its credit.
Pankaj says the adoption of the technology has been very rapid in India.
“Thought the Indian market has some concerns like regulated ticket pricing, we’ve still managed to create an impact in key southern markets like Kerala and Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Pankaj admits the southern film market has major contribution in the success of Atmos.
“We had a ball of success in south. One of the surprises has been the Kerala market. We already have 15 screens installed and more are coming up. Several iconic theatres are getting refurbished with Atmos,” he said.
“South has been a very interesting market for us. It was traditionally a market where Dolby digital didn’t do well in the past. With Atmos, we’ve been very fortunate and it has resulted in a positive story,” he said.
Some of the highly anticipated releases in Dolby Atmos include “Puli”, “Rudhramadevi”, “Maya” and “Azhar”. The last one is a biopic on former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin.
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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