Entertainment
Not easy to make smaller films after working with stars: Venkat Prabhu
Chennai: Filmmaker Venkat Prabhu, who is known for introducing Tamil cinema to independent projects like “Chennai 600028” and “Saroja”, says making such films becomes challenging as soon as one starts working with stars on big ticket outings.
Prabhu’s career’s biggest hit is “Mankatha” with actor Ajith Kumar.
“Post ‘Mankatha’, all the projects that were offered to me were requested to be only made with a certain star. Of course, all the producers give me creative freedom, but I don’t think if they’d want me to do something along the lines of ‘Chennai 600028’,” Prabhu told IANS.
“Most producers come to me with an offer to make a film with Ajith or Vijay. It’s not that I don’t want to work with stars. I’d love to work with Vijay soon,” he said, and added that a director like him can make the kind of film they want when they produce it on their own.
Prabhu’s next directorial is “Masss”, featuring Suriya. The film is slated for release on May 29.
On successfully jumping from making low-budget films to star vehicles, Prabhu said: “There’s a lot of responsibility while working with a star. There’s also some degree of fear because expectations are very high. Star-centric project means high budget and the star’s image will ride on my shoulders. So, I have to ensure their image doesn’t get tampered because of a bad film.
“If a smaller film doesn’t do well, it’ll only affect me and I usually take it in my stride. In the case of my movie Goa, its failure mostly affected me and I took full responsibility of it.”
Working with a star also comes with some benefits and Prabhu admits it.
“It’s definitely a big burden to shoulder a film featuring a star. On the flip side, you’re paid more on such projects. I wouldn’t get paid as much as I’m paid now when I work with a smaller team because when no star is involved, the market value of a project comes down,” he said.
“If I make a small film, I can only make it on a tighter budget and can bring audiences solely based on the credibility I’ve built with my work. When I work with a star, the budget becomes bigger and this allows me to achieve what I had planned initially. If I made ‘Masss’ with my regular team, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been as big as it is now in terms of production value, budget and even cast,” he added.
He looks at it as a “blessing in disguise”.
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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