Entertainment
TOIFA 2016: Bollywood stars to add sparkle in Dubai
Dubai: The lights, cameras, stage and the stars are ready, just the action is about to begin! With the red carpet all set to be rolled out for a two-day celebration, beginning Thursday, of the Times Of India Film Awards (TOIFA) 2016 here, Bollywood fans can expect a grand affair studded with stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, the organisers said.
Popular names including Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Ranveer Singh too will be seen raising the celebrity quotient at the second edition of the gala, which celebrates Hindi cinema on foreign shores. The first edition of TOIFA was successfully held in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2013; and after a long break, it’s back to enthrall fans.
“It is going to be the biggest Bollywood event ever hosted in the Gulf region with performances and presence of some of the biggest Bollywood celebrities on one stage,” said Sameer Soni, director international business, The Times of India Group.
The 25,000-seater Dubai International Stadium, Dubai Sports City, will play host to the main TOIFA night on Friday, and will feature some of Hindi filmdom’s iconic stars and young guns on the red carpet, in the audience and on the stage.
Lighting up the stage with their power-packed performances will also be Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ranveer, Kareena and Yo Yo Honey Singh.
Ranveer, a powerhouse of talent and energy, will be putting up a special tribute to Big B, wherein he will dance to some of the career-defining songs from Amitabh’s life. Popular choreographer Shiamak Davar has been working day in and out to get all the performances in place for the extravaganza.
To be co-hosted by the bubbly Parineeti Chopra and witty Riteish Deshmukh, the main event — where talent will be felicitated based on audience voting — is likely to be full of quirky gags.
Parineeti is totally gung-ho about hosting the UAE city, and told IANS: “It is always fun to do shows in Dubai because there are so many Indians there. Every time we go there for a show, we have a great experience.”
Dubai happens to be one of the favourite tourist spots for Indians.
In fact, India dominated the region, becoming Dubai’s number one source market by bringing in over 1.6 million tourists, and the country was the second fastest growing market with a 26 percent year-on-year growth, according to a report by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing.
To increase this incoming of Indians into Dubai, is also one aspect of TOIFA’s aim.
Soni added that the event is a “strategic engagement platform that leverages the power and pull of Bollywood to create significant economic impact for destinations and brands through increased tourism, trade and stronger bilateral relations”.
Media delegates from the Gulf region, Britain and India are slated to cover the event, which will flag off from Thursday night with Technical Awards and a fashion gala.
Mumbai-based designers Riyaz and Reshma Gangji will be showcasing their collection, with actors Sooraj Pancholi and Zarine Khan as showstoppers.
For those who won’t be catching the action live, the event will be aired in India on Sony Entertainment Television at a later date.
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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