Entertainment
Stalling tactics: Sasidharan on IFFI Jury viewing ‘S Durga’ on Monday
By Subhash K Jha
Mumbai, Nov 27 (IANS) Sanal Sasidharan, who directed “S Durga”, has termed as “stalling tactics” the decision of the jury of the International Film Festival Of India(IFFI) to watch the film on Monday evening.
The IFFI has been instructed by Kerala High Court to screen Sanal Sasidharan’s controversial Malayalam film “S Durga”. The process of screening the film seems to be moving ahead with the jury of the festival resolving to view the film on Monday evening.
However Sasidharan is not convinced of the IFFI’s intentions of screening the film.
“The jury is supposed to watch my film on Monday evening. Only after that would a decision be taken on when it will be screened at IFFI. These seem like stalling tactics to me. I mean, the jury will watch the film on Monday evening. They will then come to their decision. The number of days left for the Festival is rapidly shrinking,” said Sasidharan.
However, he sees a silver lining.
“At best,my film gets to be finally screened at the IFFI. I’d see that as a big victory for independent cinema in India. At worst, whatever the IFFI does with my film it now has a much larger audience waiting to see it when it is released commercially. For that I must thank the I&B ministry and the IFFI organizers.”
Ravi Jadhav whose Marathi film “Nude” was also ousted from the IFFI was not able to join Sanal Sasidharan in the fight against arbitrary governmental intervention in the screening process.
“Ravi must have had his constraints and decided against wasting his time in the legal process. I must say it has so far been a pretty frustrating fight for me,” admits Sasidharan.
–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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