Entertainment
Manoj Kumar receives Phalke Award, presents idol to President
New Delhi:Veteran film actor and director Manoj Kumar was on Tuesday conferred with the 47th Dadasaheb Phalke Award at the 63rd National Films Awards here. Known for featuring in films with patriotic themes, Manoj Kumar in return presented a Sai baba idol to President Pranab Mukherjee.
The 78-year-old looked frail in a wheelchair, but high on spirits as he waved to the cheering crowd when he got on to the stage. Mukherjee honoured the cine icon, whose career began in 1957, at Vigyan Bhavan here.
After an illustrative film narrating the journey of the star in showbiz, Manoj Kumar was welcomed on the stage with a standing ovation from the guests, among them Bollywood celebrities Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Kangana Ranaut, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar and many others.
Manoj Kumar then pulled out the idol and presented it to the President.
Dressed in hues of saffron on his shirt and head band, the actor also touched Mukherjee’s feet in a traditional Indian gesture of paying respect.
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is conferred by the government of India for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema. The award consists of a Swarn Kamal (Golden Lotus), a cash prize of Rs.10 lakh and a shawl.
The honour is given on the basis of recommendations of a committee of eminent personalities set up by the government. This year, a five-member jury — Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Salim Khan, Nitin Mukesh and Anup Jalota — unanimously recommended Manoj Kumar for the prestigious award.
Having starred in films like “Upkar”, “Hariyali Aur Rasta”, “Woh Kaun Thi?”, “Himalay Ki God Mein”, “Roti Kapada Aur Makaan” and “Kranti”, the National Award winner and Padma Shri awardee has also directed over five films, including “Roti Kapada Aur Makaan”.
Manoj Kumar’s last big screen appearance was in the 1995 film “Maidan-E-Jung”.
Born in July 1937, in Abbottabad, then in pre-independent India and now in Pakistan, Manoj Kumar shifted to Delhi when he was 10. After graduating from Hindu College, University of Delhi, he decided to enter the film industry.
After debuting with “Fashion”, he got his first lead role in “Kaanch Ki Gudia” in 1960. And his image as the patriotic hero started with the 1965 film “Shaheed”, based on the life of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.
After the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri asked him to create a film based on the popular slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kissan”. The result was Manoj Kumar’s magnum opus and his directorial debut, “Upkar” (1967).
The film helped him to bag the National Film Award, and it was also the first time that he took on the screen name Bharat — which he used in multiple films thereafter.
His body of work was recognised by the Indian government with a Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, in 1992.
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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