Entertainment
Stern action to be taken against piracy: ‘Baahubali’ team
Chennai: Ahead of the release of S.S. Rajamouli’s magnum opus “Baahubali” on Friday, the team has joined hands with key members of Telugu film fraternity to fight piracy and has launched a tirade against pirates.
Popular Telugu producer and distributor Allu Aravind has joined the team and extended his support to stop piracy menace.
“Theatre owners have to be responsible and stop this. In most cases, movies are recorded in theatres using mobile phones and video cameras. Sometimes it even happens in the operator’s room. Despite being aware, most theatre owners don’t do anything,” Aravind told.
Said to have been made on a budget of Rs.250 crore, “Baahubali” is reportedly the most expensive Indian film ever made.
“A lot of money is riding on this project. There’s a lot at stake for producers Shobu Yarlagadda, Raghavendra Rao and Prasad Devineni. If theatre owners are found aiding in piracy, they will face suspension from the industry for a long time,” Aravind said.
Talking about how they can track a pirated copy, he said: “If anyone shoots the movie in a particular theatre, we’d come to know about it immediately because of a special code watermarked on the film”.
The film has also been granted a “John Doe order”, an order of injunction that is issued against unknown persons. This will allow authorities to even take into custody all those found downloading a pirated copy of the film.
Rajamouli says some theatres even screen separate shows for pirates.
“We’ve been trying to curb this menace for quite some time now. I’ve been told that some theatres even screen a special show at midnight for pirates to record the films and release it in the market and upload it online,” Rajamouli said.
The “Makkhia” filmmaker is confident that his team will track down pirates with the help of police.
The film about the battle for an ancient kingdom between two brothers stars Rana Daggubati, Prabhas, Nasser, Sathyaraj, Sudeep, Ramya Krishnan, Anushka Shetty and Tamannah Bhatia in important roles.
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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