Entertainment
Kashmiri actor on growing up in ‘politically unstable state’
By Subhash K. Jha
Mumbai, Feb 18 (IANS) “Kuch Bheege Alfaaz” actor Zain Khan Durrani, a Kashmiri by birth, says the worst part about growing up in a “tumultuous and politically unstable state” is that you insidiously get used to the violence around.
He made a strong impact in Onir’s latest directorial “Kuch Bheege Alfaaz” as a poetic romantic dreamer RJ with a guilty secret.
Where does this intensity on screen come from?
“I believe it’s a lot to do with the character I am asked to play. I have always been an emotional person and that got me to write the poetry I do. Maybe growing up in Kashmir does have a bearing on the emotional aspect of my personality as well,” he said.
He grew up watching movies with his father on the VCR.
“I didn’t see a movie on the big screen until ‘Swades’ in Jammu owing to the fact that there are none in Kashmir. But I think this mode of self-expression was coveted by me deep down within always,” said the actor, whose father is a doctor and mother a professor of psychology.
The Burn Hall school, Srinagar alumnus also studied at Zakir Husain Delhi College.
As a Kashmiri, what are his thoughts on the violence in the Valley and the violent times we live in?
“The worst part about growing up in a tumultuous and politically unstable state is that you insidiously get used to the violence around. Almost impermeable but scared and disconcerted within,” he said.
On bagging “Kuch Bheege Alfaaz” (KBA), he said: “It’s been a process of three years in Mumbai. I came to Mumbai by a stroke of destiny in 2014, when a random audition call landed me at the auditions of Onir’s ‘Shab’, in Delhi.”
“Onir liked my work and asked me to assist him on ‘Shab’. I spent my time learning and auditioning all of this while until Onir mentioned KBA to me and that I had to undergo auditions again with FTC (production house F The Couch) and that I did. Only when the producers liked me did Onir tell me that he always wanted me to do the role.”
He finds Onir a through professional.
“His emotional intelligence and skills are exceptional. While it’s my first movie, I was never made to feel that way. He has an in-depth approach and he includes aspects from the personal life of his actors in the characters they are portraying thereby making the process much more sustainable for his actors,” said the actor.
In the film, he is shown to have no qualms in befriending and falling in love with a girl who has a skin ailment. Would he react the same way in real life to a similar situation?
“I have come to believe that a beautiful face will wither and an intelligent mind can decay, but the soul is where the beauty resides and I want to be cherished for that and hence, I wouldn’t want any thing less than that for my loved one,” said Zain.
On his future plans, he said: “I want to be able to do a wide variety of roles. Content is the new king as it should be so the kind of work that excites me as an audience is what I’d like to be a part of as an actor as well.”
–IANS
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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
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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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