Entertainment
On 48th birthday, Akshay Kumar announces new film ‘Rustom’
Mumbai: Bollywood action star Akshay Kumar, who turned 48 on Wednesday, announced his new romantic thriller “Rustom”, which marks his third collaboration with Neeraj Pandey. The movie will release on the weekend of Independence Day 2016.
The “Khiladi” star tweeted: “Thrilled to announce Neeraj Pandey and I are collaborating for a romantic thriller #Rustom releasing on Aug 12, 2016! Hoping to be third time lucky :).”
Akshay and Pandey have earlier worked as actor-director in “Baby” and “Special 26”, both of which found appreciation. But “Rustom” is not being directed by Pandey, and instead marks the directorial debut of Tinu Suresh Desai.
Inspired by real life incidents, the project is co-produced by Zee Studios, KriArj Entertainment and Friday Filmworks.
“Having worked with Neeraj on two fabulous projects, I am excited to start work on our new film. I’m happy that Zee Studios is putting its might behind this film along with KriArj Entertainment and Friday Filmworks. It gives me and the entire team confidence of this launched worldwide using the global might of Zee,” Akshay said in a statement.
Apart from the actor, the movie will feature two “young actresses”.
Pandey, who will pen the dialogues of the film himself; will co-write the screenplay along with Vipul Rawal; and also contribute towards the film’s edit, said: “When Tinu narrated ‘Rustom’ to us, we immediately got hooked to the quality of the narrative and its potential and instantly decided that it was something that we would like to produce.
“We also really felt that given the nature of the story, Akshay would be the perfect fit and him agreeing to come on board will definitely give it the canvas it requires.”
The makers also said that “to do justice to the story it would need to be an international film traversing multiple countries and for that we would definitely require good partners”.
The first schedule of the shoot of “Rustom” will commence by mid-December this year. It will travel to multiple locations globally in the course of its production.
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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