Entertainment
Shashi Kapoor’s heroines remember ‘the Gentleman’
By Subhash K Jha
Mumbai, Dec 5 (IANS) From Sharmila Tagore and Asha Parekh to Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Mumtaz, Shabana Azmi and of course Raakhee Gulzar with whom Shashi Kapoor did the maximum number of films, the demise of the veteran actor has left his heroines shattered.
Shabana who is in Sydney is too grieved to speak on the actor whom she names among the biggest influences in her life along with Shashi’s wife Jennifer Kendal, filmmaker Shyam Benegal and her parents Kaifi and Shaukat Azmi.
“He was the most handsome man I’ve ever come across,” says Shabana.
Raakhee Gulzar wept as she recalled all the meals she cooked on outdoor locations with Shashi during their spectacularly successful stints for “Sharmilee”, “Kabhi Kabhie”, and a slew of films some of them like “Trishna” and “Jaanwar Aur Insaan” forgotten today.
Hema Malini remembers Shashi as a through gentleman. “When he did ‘Abhinetri’ with me I was new and he was established. Still he didn’t mind doing a film that revolved around my character.”
Shashi Kapoor was Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s “Anand” after Kishore Kumar said no. But when the reigning superstar Rajesh Khanna showed an interest in playing “Anand”, Shashi was shown the door.
Khanna and Kapoor didn’t work together for many years when Raj Khosla cast them together in “Prem Kahani” as the two men in Mumtaz’s life.
One of his top heroines told me, “I’d recommend Shashiji for many films. But producers would refuse saying he was a flop actor. As blunt as that. Flop actor,they said. I was appalled by the crassness of it. But there was little I could do about it.”
In the 1970s Shashi did come into his own with solo hits like “Chor Machaye Shor”, “Chori Mera Kaam” and “Fakira”. But he chose to play the second lead in Amitabh Bachchan starrers. That finished off his career as a leading man in commercial films.
Sharmila Tagore for some strange reason blanks out her stupendously successful pairing with Rajesh Khanna and focuses on her resoundingly flop combination with Shashi Kapoor.
She once told me. “I really enjoyed working with Shashi. He had a wonderful sense of humour and he was an exceptional husband. We did many films together after our successful pairing in ‘Waqt’. I enjoyed ‘Aa Gale Lag Jaa’, ‘Paap Aur Punya’, ‘Anari’, ‘Suhana Safar’… His work as an actor and then as a producer of important off-mainstream cinema makes him unique.”
“He was the first Indian actor to work abroad, and that too with an eminent director like James Ivory. Together they did exemplary work. Shashi worked really hard to achieve what he did as an actor and producer. He was an exceptionally softspoken co-star and also a very considerate team player on the sets. He was very kind to all the technicians. He generated tremendous goodwill in cinema and theatre. He was an extraordinarily versatile artiste.”
Actress Shabana Azmi who did “Fakira” with Shashi Kapoor said: “He has been a trailblazer in so many ways. He was the first Indian actor to work in Hollywood. He was the first mainstream actor who when he turned producer did so with artistic cinema like ’36 Chowringhee Lane’ and ‘Junoon’.”
Shashi would often joke that since all the films he produced bombed at the box office, he had no choice but to do any and every film offered to him. Hence his brother Raj Kapoor’s jibe about Shashi being a taxi on hire didn’t stick.
–IANS
skj/nv/bg
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.
Content provided by Adverloom
Foodman Vishal Singh Honored for Hunger Free World Mission in Bangkok
Dr. Abhishek Verma Dedicates a Shelter in Memory of His Mother, Veena Verma, at KGMU; Inaugurated by Daughter Nicolle Verma
Cheers and Cheers: Barzilla’s Joyful Ode to Inclusivity and Celebration
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists
IPL 20202 UPDATE: KXIP vs MI IPL Dream11 Team Prediction for Today Match, Update Point Table of all Team.
In a Live debate AAP leader Syed Asad Abbas hurls abuses to BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
‘India’s Most Wanted’ trailer out Arjun Kapoor on hunt of Osama-Bin-Laden
Time to move on: Sonakshi on Shatrughan’s joining Congress
