Entertainment
New formats, platforms don’t excite me: Gauri Shinde
New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS) “English Vinglish” and “Dear Zindagi” fame director Gauri Shinde says digital platforms may be booming in the country currently but they do not excite her without having a “compelling” story to tell.
“There will be many platforms, but I think the key is the idea and the story. Once you have that and then you want to adapt that to any format, is fine. But these new formats and platforms don’t excite me.
“If I have an idea that excites me, then it goes to okay which platform can I take it to. So, digital as a word does not excite me unless there is something new to do,” Shinde told IANS here during a recent visit.
She applies the same logic to filmmaking.
There was a four-year gap between “English Vinglish” and “Dear Zindagi”, both of which were endearing tales about women.
What’s next?
“Really nothing… For me, I don’t think there’s any pressure of having to do anything. That’s not how I think. If there’s something compelling or I really want to express something, that’s when I will take it up. I said that after ‘English Vinglish’ too that I won’t make another film that pushes me in that direction,” added Shinde, who was here with her husband and filmmaker R. Balki earlier this week.
She finds it good that Hindi cinema is pushing the envelope as far as talking about social issues is concerned, and topping it up with a dose of entertainment.
“I just hope we hope we all can manage the content well and somebody does not make something that again pushes it all back so that nobody has the guts again to do it. It needs to also be done in a very entertaining manner because it’s great that people are accepting this kind of stuff and we can experiment and take the risk of making such films,” Shinde said.
One to believe that cinema should never be preachy, she added: “We are not making documentaries nor are we making special video films… This is cinema. So we should fulfil the first objective of cinema, which is to engage and entertain.”
She was here for a session for Ficci Ladies Organisation (FLO).
–IANS
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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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