Entertainment
Buffoonery is easy, comedy is not: Filmmaker Anees Bazmee
New Delhi: He has tickled the audience’s funny bone with entertainers like “Welcome” and “Singh Is Kinng”. Now back with “Welcome Back”, filmmaker Anees Bazmee says that while “buffoonery” with nudity and double entendre dialogues is easy, scoring a hit with “comedy” is “serious” business.
“Comedy is a very serious business, and I may say that all the comedy films that I have made till date, I’ve written them when I was not in good mood or very angry,” Bazmee, who has been in the film industry for over 35 years, told IANS on phone from Mumbai.
“Writing comedy is a very difficult job, but buffoonery is very easy! One can write it whenever…I don’t like to make the buffoonery kind of films. I don’t believe in shortcuts like putting lines that have a double meaning or to show nudity,” he said.
The filmmaker, who has also written movies like “Raju Chacha”, “King Uncle” and “Pyar To Hona Hi Tha”, in fact, prefers to make movies which calls for a family audience.
“I don’t believe in that (buffoonery), I only believe in making films which I can see with my wife and daughter… I just want my films to be more family-oriented, which families can watch together,” he added.
Bazmee’s “Welcome Back” is a sequel to his 2008 super hit Akshay Kumar starrer “Welcome”. It features an ensemble cast, including John Abraham, Shruti Haasan, Naseeruddin Shah, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Paresh Rawal and Dimple Kapadia.
A sequel was a challenge.
Bazmee says he was aware that “making a sequel of ‘Welcome’ will not be easy”. And he says this was “the only reason” it took him to so long to make it.
“If I made a film completely on the lines of ‘Welcome’ again, then people would think that they have seen something like that before… But if I made a very different movie, then people would be disappointed and think that we did not come to see this, we came to see ‘Welcome Back’…. So I had to make a new ‘Welcome’, which had to have that uncanny resemblance to the first part.
“As a director, I thought it was a very challening part.”
He also clarified that John is “not a replacement” for Akshay in the new film, and war roped in because the sequel just needed a new character. Nevertheless, Bazmee is sure he will team up with the Bollywood ‘khiladi’ again some day.
“Askhay is a complete actor and a big star… his comedy timing (is great). He does amazing action… What Akshay can do no one else can do. We have thought of doing films in the future, and even I want that we do more work together,” Bazmee said.
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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