Entertainment
Masaan’ crew locks horns over censoring issue
Mumbai : After Anurag Kashyap and Neeraj Ghaywan raised objections over free online streaming application Hotstar playing a tempered version of their National Award winning film “Masaan”, they are locked in a war of words with co-producers Drishyam Films.
“Masaan” was made available on Star network’s streaming app, but Ghaywan and Kashyap were upset that it wasn’t shown as it is meant to be.
However, Shiladitya Bora, CEO, Drishyam Films, which co-produced “Masaan”, clarified that the cuts had been made in full knowledge of the whole team, including the film’s director Ghaywan.
Kashyap, whose Phantom Films co-produced the multiple award winning 2015 film along with names including Drishyam Films and Sikhya Entertainment, gave a straight response to Bora to “own up to your mistake or sue me”, while Ghaywan again raised a few questions and summed up by saying that the cuts are “barbaric” as “money can own a film but not its spirit”.
Apart from Ghaywan, producer Kashyap had taken to Twitter to lash out at the Hotstar platform and even urged viewers to either watch the film on DVD or download it illegally it via torrents.
The official statement from Drishyam Films on the censoring issue around “Masaan”: “Neither has Drishyam Films nor has Hotstar executed any cuts voluntarily. Moreover, the cuts were made only by the Central Board of Film Certification in order to give the film a U/A certification.”
Bora, through the statement, clarified that “through requests made to the director of the film, Neeraj Ghaywan via email and regular telephonic follow up, we had time and again asked him to provide his version of cuts in the movie. Therefore, to make a statement on social media that the cuts were made without his knowledge is completely false and baseless.”
Drishyam Films denied all allegations made by Ghaywan and Kashyap, with a warning that legal action will be taken if need be.
In reply to Bora’s accusation, Ghaywan questioned: “When did you check with me to make the satellite cuts? Do you have an email or SMS conversation asking me to suggest how do we go about the satellite version to be sent for certification?
“Are you saying you sent the adult certified film to CBFC (as we saw in theatres and DVD) and they came back with all the cuts that we see now on Hotstar? Are you saying you haven’t made any interim cut ahead of sending it for UA certification?”
Ghaywan also clarified what Kashyap meant by his tweet.
“You are reading Anurag’s tweet the wrong way, like most trolls did. What he intended was to say that it is better to watch a pirated DVD or on torrents than watching the mutilated cut. This doesn’t imply him asking people to watch it on torrents. It was a manner of sarcasm to make a point,” Ghaywan said in Kashyap’s support.
Ghaywan also stressed that “the way the film is uploaded, it completely alters the film with even a 5-6 minute cut down.”
Ghaywan concluded the war of words by saying: “A person watching ‘Masaan’ for the first time with these cuts will never understand or sympathise with Devi’s story. It is barbaric.”
“This is not just about ‘Masaan’. It is about every writer/editor/director’s right to have a say in the cut made by a producer. Money can own a film but not its spirit. I don’t want to argue on this matter anymore if you just don’t get it. You can email me if you feel like, but I am done here.”
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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