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Surnames can never take you anywhere: Angad Bedi

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By Radhika Bhirani
New Delhi, Jan 2 (IANS) “I’m a very proud Bedi,” says actor Angad Bedi — son of former Indian cricket captain Bishan Singh Bedi — who says having a certain surname alone can’t take a person anywhere. It takes talent, hard work and luck in equal measure if one is to climb the ladder.

Nepotism was a popular word in Bollywood last year, what with the debate that actress Kangana Ranaut sparked by calling filmmaker Karan Johar a “flagbearer of nepotism”.

Asked if his surname has helped him, Angad, whose latest release is “Tiger Zinda Hai”, told IANS: “Not at all. A surname can never take you anywhere. It’s your talent and potential that take you places. But, yes, I am a very proud Bedi and I am very proud to be born to Bishan Singh Bedi, who has done our country proud for 20 years.

“Just to be his son is an achievement in its own way, but I wanted my father to be proud of his son, and he was when he saw ‘Pink’. He is liking the choice of work I am doing. Let’s see where I go from here.”

Angad worked on the small screen as host of “Extraaa Innings T20” in 2010, and hosted “Cook Na Kaho” as well as participated in “Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi (Season 3)”.

On the film front, he has worked in “F.A.L.T.U.”, “Ungli”, “Pink” and “Dear Zindagi”, and has also done the web-series “Inside Edge”.

It was Shoojit Sircar’s production “Pink”, which saw him play the misogynistic Rajveer Singh, that changed the course of his career, landing him a chance in projects like “Inside Edge” and Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif starrer “Tiger Zinda Hai”.

“Tukke lag rahe hain bas (It’s all a fluke). Yes, I worked quite hard to be in a position where I can be part of such deserving films, but I would also say that when you put in hard work, even luck plays an important role. But I believe you can’t be lucky without working hard. So it works both ways.

“‘Pink’… got me noticed and I got a lot of visibility; Ali Abbas Zafar saw ‘Pink’ and that’s how I got ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’, and while I got ‘Tiger…’, I also got ‘Inside Edge’, and Shaad Ali saw me in ‘Inside Edge’ and called me and put me in ‘Soorma’.”

The effect of “Ungli” was reverse.

“After ‘Ungli’, nobody wanted to work with me… Nobody signed me for two-and-a-half or three years. But Shoojit da saw me at an awards ceremony and that’s where I got found,” he said.

Reflecting on his journey, he pointed to a “simple thumb rule” of the industry.

“If the film works, everybody works (with you). If it doesn’t, nobody works (with you). ‘Ungli’ was a great film on paper, was backed by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, directed by Rensil D’Silva who made ‘Kurbaan’, but it didn’t work. Sometimes, timings don’t work, so things don’t work out.

“There was Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Kangana Ranaut, Sanjay Dutt, Neha Dhupia… It was a great cast, but the film just didn’t materialise. Everyone has their day,” Angad said.

Actors come in phases, he said, adding: “In 2016, it was Sushant Singh Rajput all the way with ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’, in 2017, everyone was talking about Rajkummar Rao… Hopefully, in the new year, if people talk about me in the same light as how they talk about Rajkummar, I will feel I have achieved something.”

As far as “Tiger Zinda Hai” is concerned, he hopes it has exposed him to the audience and market that a Salman movie commands.

Angad’s next movie is “Soorma” with Diljit Dosanjh. It is a biopic based on the hockey legend Sandeep Singh.

What has been his biggest challenge in Bollywood?

“To convince people that I can work in their films, give me a break, give me a chance and instill faith in me. It so happens that you wait, wait and wait, and then someone takes a punt on you and everything changes.”

(Radhika Bhirani can be contacted at [email protected])

–IANS
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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

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.

CasinoDays India

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.

 

CasinoDays India

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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