Entertainment
Not disappointed about ‘Baahubali’ missing out Oscar entry: Rajamouli (IANS Interview)
By Sugandha Rawal
Hyderabad, Sep 25 (IANS) S.S. Rajamouli is not disappointed that his magnum opus “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” was not chosen as Indias official entry to the Oscars for the foreign language film category this year. The filmmaker says his aim is to take stories to a wider audience, and making money for the team, instead of winning awards.
“(I am) Not at all (disappointed at losing out the race to Oscars this year). When I make a film, I never think about awards. It is not my aim. The aim is to first satisfy myself with the story and then next is to see that it reaches the maximum number of audience and makes money for everyone who has put their life in it,” Rajamouli told IANS here.
“That is my most important thing. If awards come, then I am happy. If they don’t, I don’t mind that because they are not at all my criteria,” he added.
“Newton”, a Hindi film set against the backdrop of elections in the world’s largest democracy, has been announced as India’s official entry for the the foreign language film category at the Oscars. “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion”, which will have its TV premiere on Sony MAX on October 8, was also reportedly in contention.
Rajamouli attained global fame as the creator of the “Baahubali” universe — which went on to become India’s biggest blockbuster with worldwide earnings of over Rs 900 crore.
Starring Prabhas and Rana Daggubati as the male protagonists, the film’s story is about the battle for the ownership of an ancient kingdom between two brothers. The story is woven together in two parts with dance, music, emotion and drama.
It also features Anushka Shetty, Ramya Krishnan, Tamannaah Bhatia and Sathyaraj.
The first part “Baahubali: The Beginning” came out in 2015 and the second “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” was released earlier this year.
The filmmaker says he is yet to come out of the “Baahubali” spell.
“It is quite a complicated spell that you cannot just say ‘Okay, I just got out of it’,” said the filmmaker, who worked with Dharma Productions to help the film transcend language barriers.
He said he was sure that the film will be successful, but its popularity in northern India stumped him.
“The total budget of both the films was Rs 150 core. If we hadn’t expected that the film will do very well and aim good result — simple economics will point out that we would not have done the movie at all,” he said.
After the success of the franchise, Rajamouli says he has “lost a little bit of privacy in the northern belt as well”.
“But nothing else has changed. I am as content as I was before the film released,” the director said.
Talking about the disappointing year at the Bollywood box office in 2017, Rajamouli said: “At present, the Hindi film industry has hit a lean patch and I don’t think that it will last long. Very soon we will be able to see quite a number of successes.”
(The writer’s trip is at the invitation of Sony MAX. Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at [email protected])
–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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