Entertainment
I can’t be choosy at this age: Soumitra Chatterjee
Kolkata: At 83, one of Satyajit Ray’s most favourite actors, Soumitra Chatterjee, who starred in the critical and commercial hit “Bela Seshe: In The Autumn Of My Life”, says he is no longer in a position to choose scripts and grab meaty roles since age has limited his repertoire.
A much talked about Bengali film, “Bela Seshe” recently completed 150 days at the box office and was lauded for reuniting Chatterjee with theatre actress Swatilekha Sengupta, 30 years after Ray paired the two in “Ghare Baire” (The Home and The World).
Chatterjee has worked under Ray’s direction in 15 feature films and one documentary – starting with his debut in “Apur Sansar” in 1959 – in lead and award-winning roles.
Despite his brilliance in performing, the actor’s oeuvre over the past few years has largely comprised supporting acts.
“I’m not choosy any more at this age. I can’t afford to be choosy now. When I was a full-fledged hero actor, I could choose my scripts, but when I had to switch over to character acting I can’t afford to choose,” Chatterjee told in an interview.
But as director duo Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee approached him with the script of “Bela Seshe”, he found it unusual and accepted it because it also provided a chance for him to showcase his acting skills.
“It was a rather unusual concept and interesting for me since I got ample opportunity to sort of exercise my abilities,” the thespian said.
The film revolves around a married couple who decide to separate after 50 years of marriage and narrates a tale of how the decision will change their children’s life. Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan heaped praises on the movie which had its pan-India release in June and is slated to have a global release later.
The fastidious Chatterjee was also impressed with the filmmakers’ interest in elderly actors.
“It was a good thing on the part of the directors to pair the two of us since there are not many elderly actresses left who are frequently seen and often opposite me,” Chatterjee observed.
Swatilekha, a Sangeet Natak Academy-winner, concurs.
“They thought of this concept, this was our gain. At our age it is very difficult to get meaty and pioneering roles,” the actress told IANS, hoping the film helps in changing mindsets in the film industry since even at their age, they are as professional and disciplined at shoots as any actor of the younger generation.
Chatterjee says he prefers to adopt a “thoroughly” professional attitude on sets, notwithstanding personal relations.
In fact, he says, though there were moments while shooting “Bela Seshe” when the two were hit by waves of Ray nostalgia, the focus was on getting the job done.
“But nothing compares to working with Ray. He was a class apart,” asserted Chatterjee.
A leading figure of Bengali stage, Chatterjee recently played the protagonist in an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “King Lear”. The play got rave reviews and also drew the crowds in large numbers. The octogenarian says he wants to do more of Shakespeare.
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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