Entertainment
Vaani Kapoor locked as lead actress of ‘Befikre’
Mumbai: Actress Vaani Kapoor has been chosen to star alongside actor Ranveer Singh in Aditya Chopra’s directorial comeback “Befikre”.
With “Befikre”, Aditya is returning to the director’s chair after seven years. After the announcement of Ranveer as the lead actor of the film, details of the female lead were much awaited.
Now Vaani has been unveiled as the lead in the almost three-minute long online video, which opens with a line “Introducing the LEAD ACTRESS of Aditya Chopra’s #Befikre Those Who Dare to Love”.
Looking casual in a striped red shirt and a pair of ripped jeans, Vani initiates the conversation with viewers and talks about the Yash Raj office.
“In case you are wondering where I am, this is the Yash Raj office, which literally has been my home for the last two years. It’s been two years since my first film came out,” Vaani, who made her acting debut with “Shuddh Desi Romance” in 2013, said in the video.
“After winning most of the promising awards for that film, I somehow expected office to flood it. Clearly, things didn’t fall into place. That time, Adi (Aditya) met me and shared his undoubted belief in my potential and he even asked me if I had faith in myself so wait for the right project. So, I waited. These waitings months turned into a whole year,” she added.
Vaani said during that period, “people speculating whether my career would fail even before it began”.
“After sometime Adi (Aditya) called me and said, ‘I am penning down a script which will be directed by someone else. I want you to workshop for it’. I had to prepare an English movie song and a scene every week. This process went on for six months,” she said.
“Soon after, I was called again by Adi, who said that he is going to take another month.”
But Vaani’s wait didn’t go in vain, as Aditya informed her that she was already cast in “Befikre”, which he would himself direct.
“I had no idea whether to start jumping, start crying or keep myself composed. I don’t even think if it has sunk in yet. I am glad that my faith in myself and him and his faith in me got me my dream,” she said about bagging the role.
“Just hold on to your dream and watch it come alive, just like mine,” she added.
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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