Entertainment
Smoke, dirt needed to sell reality, says Dibakar Banerjee
Panaji: Dibakar Banerjee has used smoke machines, dust and dirt for his upcoming film “Detective Byomkesh Bakshy”, and the filmmaker believes that these elements are essential to make movies look real.
During a session on “Recreating Cities from Bygone Eras – Kolkata of the ’40s for ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshy'” at Film Bazaar here, he, along with the film’s production designer Vandana Kataria, cinematographer Nikos Anditsakis and creative producer Vikas Chandra shared how they tried to avoid giving the movie a “period look”.
“We took references from movies of the era, but our film has a contemporary look. It’s not period,” said Anditsakis.
Calling it a combination of fantasy and reality, Kataria said she used “ageing techniques” for the buildings.
“Dust was blown on set, water was thrown, tissue paper was used and heat treated, made drains and put dirt. All this helped to make it look real,” she explained.
Banerjee agreed.
“Nothing sells reality more than a little bit of smoke, dust and dirt,” he said.
He is also proud that despite the use of VFX, the movie looks real.
“It doesn’t look like we have used VFX. I don’t think anyone will come out of a theatre and say ‘What effects!’,” said the director, who believes that while visual effects are a necessity, they should be used to the bare minimum.
Asked about choosing Sushant Singh Rajput as the lead actor for the film, Banerjee said: “He is young and doesn’t speak much. He is strong-willed too. That makes him similar to Byomkesh.”
The movie, described by the director as a “sex, romance, love and crime film”, will hit screens next year.
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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