Entertainment
SC to hear actress Priya’s plea seeking quashing of FIR (Lead)
New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS) The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday a plea by Malayalam actress Priya Prakash Varrier seeking quashing of a spate of complaints and an FIR registered against her and the film director for allegedly hurting the sentiments of a minority community.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud agreed on Tuesday to hear the plea by the teenage actress, who stars in the film “Oru Addar Love” having a ‘wink song’ picturised on her that apparently hurt the community’s sentiments.
Varrier’s lawyer Harris Beeran told the bench that the actress has moved the court seeking the quashing of the FIR and four complaints filed against her and film director Omar Lulu in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, respectively.
Later speaking to reporters, Beeran said that the said song has been there for last four decades and there has been no complaint in Kerala but an FIR was filed in Andhra Pradesh and four complaints in Maharashtra.
Some Muslim activists had lodged an FIR against the team of “Oru Adaar Love” in Hyderabad under Section 295A (hurting religious sentiments) of the Indian Penal Code on February 14. A group in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad also filed a police complaint against Varrier and Lulu on the same grounds.
The contentious scene where Varrier winks at a boy features the Mappila lyrics — a traditional Muslim song from the Malabar region of Kerala — that celebrate the love between Prophet Mohammed and his first wife Khadija.
The complainants have primarily objected to the use of Mappila as background music in the flirting scene.
Thrissur-based Varrier, who learns music and dance, is making her acting debut with the Malayalam film. She got noticed via a short clip from the film’s song “Manikya malaraya”, and it went viral.
In the clip, she is seen giving a wink and smiling while flirting with a boy. It is the mischief, innocence and simplicity in the shots that have touched the right chords with viewers.
In another teaser for the film, which is releasing next month, she is seen giving a naughty flying kiss.
–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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