Entertainment
Radhika Apte: I said yes for ‘Phobia’ because of the climax
Late one night, a woman is assaulted. Mehek, a painter, develops agoraphobia, an irrational fear of public spaces. She refuses to step out of the house. After four months of cajoling and therapy, a friend shifts her into a new apartment, which he hopes will enable her to heal. But the apartment seems to have a life of its own.
It sounds like a standard-issue horror film. In fact, a quick search on IMDB and Wikipedia reveals two other films named Phobia — one of which also deals with agoraphobia. The basic premise also has shades of Ram Gopal Varma’s Kaun?
But don’t be deterred. Phobia is a smart, sassy and spooky thriller written and directed by Pavan Kirpalani, who earlier made Ragini MMS and Darr @ the Mall. Frankly, I had gone in with zero expectations because Hindi film horror mostly alternates between cheerfully cheesy and unintentionally funny, but Pavan scores big with Phobia. It will make you jump.
Unexpectedly, it will also make you laugh out loud — in scenes that are actually meant to be funny.
The modest scale of the film is balanced by its big ambitions. Most of it is shot in one location with a handful of actors. The elfin Yashaswani Dayama plays a kooky college girl who befriends Mehek. Satyadeep Mishra, one of Bollywood’s most underrated actors, is Shaan, the man who loves Mehek but is exhausted by her unpredictable and uncontrollable mind.
But Phobia rides on the blazing talent of Radhika Apte. She’s in practically every frame but you never tire of watching her.
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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