Entertainment
Karan Johar ‘dying’ to watch ‘Fan’
Mumbai : Filmmaker Karan Johar says he is “dying” to watch his close friend and superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s forthcoming film “Fan”.
Karan, who has worked with the 50-year-old star in films like “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…”, “Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna”, “”My Name Is Khan” and “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” took to Twitter to share his desire to watch the film.
“Dying to see ‘Fan’! Shah Rukh Khan… Do you think Adi (Aditya Chopra) will show it to anyone before the 15th,” Karan tweeted.
“Fan”, which is directed by Maneesh Sharma, will see the “Dilwale” star playing a double role.
The actor was first seen playing a dual avatar in the 1998 film “Duplicate”, in which he played both a postive and a negative character.
Produced by Yash Raj Films, the movie hits the screens on April 15.
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‘Sarbjit’, a story that needs to be told: Jackky Bhagnani
Actor Jackky Bhagnani, who is making a foray into film production with a new division for his home banner Pooja Films Entertainment Ltd., says it’s a “meaningful” movie based on a story that needs to be told.
“I believe there are some stories that need to be told and Sarbjit is definitely one of them. I have been meaning to carve out a niche within Pooja Films for meaningful cinema for a while now, and when Omung Sir narrated the story of Sarbjit, I knew we had found that story,” Jackky said in a statement.
“Sarbjit” is a biopic on Sarabjit Singh, an Indian farmer who was convicted in Pakistan on charges of terrorism and spying and was sentenced to death. He was attacked by inmates in a prison in Lahore in April 2013 and died a few days later.
Jackky had kept his association with the film under wraps and it’s only when the second poster of “Sarbjit” was released digitally on Wednesday that many in the film industry learnt about his move to take Pooja Films into the biopic and meaningful cinema space.
Social media was abuzz with industry friends and others wishing the young actor on his new role. Filmmaker Karan Johar tweeted: “Congratulations Jackky Bhagnani, can’t wait to see this true story unfold”. Among the others congratulating the actor-producer were Riteish Deshmukh, Dia Mirza, Atul Kasbekar and Raj Kundra.
“Sarbjit” director Omung Kumar reminisced about how the two got together to bring the film into being.
“My association with Jackky goes back a long way when we started our careers – me as a director, and Jackky as an actor. Now we are associated together with our film ‘Sarbjit’ as producer and director. I knew him as a kid who would be on his father’s sets and I see him now as this bright and promising young actor.”
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Lauren Gottlieb collaborates with health app
Dancer-actor Lauren Gottlieb, who has featured in films like “ABCD: Any Body Can Dance”, “Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!” and “ABCD 2” has been as chosen as the brand ambassador of a health app.
The announcement was made on the occasion of World Health Day on Thursday.
The fitness app called MevoLife is a health and fitness regulator that helps its users in keeping a track on their workouts, calorie intake, makes delicious food recipe suggestions and even lets people share their scores and updates on fitness with their friends.
“I am really happy to come on board as the ambassador for MevoLife. I think anyone like me who is an avid fitness freak would love for more such tools which are a click away to help me organise and keep a track of my fitness progress,” Lauren said in a statement.
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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