Entertainment
Young Manipuri filmmaker attempts to popularise his state
By Natalia Ningthoujam
New Delhi: Where is Manipur located? It’s a question often thrown at Manipuris by other citizens of India. In a bid to make the northeastern state popular, Wanglen Khundongbam, who has studied in Bangkok and London, chose to go back to his roots and make films.
A diploma holder in Digital Filmmaking from SAE Bangkok and a similar degree from London’s Middlesex University, the 26-year-old from Imphal, chose not to settle down abroad or in one of the Indian metro cities as he wants people across the globe to know about Manipur.
“In India itself, most people don’t know about Manipur. So, how do you expect people from other countries to know about its existence? After getting the required education and some experience in the field, I returned to my hometown in 2012 and started working on my first film ‘Pallepfam’ (Destiny).
“I hope I can make a change through my small endeavour,” Khundongbam, managing director of The Bluebird Pictures, which has produced the film, told in a telephonic interview from Imphal.
The 2014 Manipuri feature, made at a budget of approximately Rs.1 million, was first screened for a few selected guests at a hotel in Imphal, where there are limited number of theatres, in December last year.
It kicked off the second edition of Fragrances from the North East, a three-day festival of cinema from the northeast, here on August 21.
“’Pallepfam’ was selected as the opening film of the festival. I think it’s an honour for the state. I was lauded by many movie-goers for the picturisation, story and direction. And the audience was not just from the northeast. It is quite encouraging,” said the budding filmmaker, who is also planning to send the movie to more film festivals.
Apart from sending his films to various festivals, he also hopes the government picks his movie and airs it on Doordarshan channel.
“The visibility will be more then,” said Khundongbam, who has also worked as an assistant director on a yet-to-be-titled Swedish film by Anders Lennberg.
“Pallepfam”, a romantic drama, is a fiction film that focuses on a man who begins to question reality as he starts living two extremely different, but parallel lives.
Wouldn’t he like to make films based on the socio-political issues in Manipur, which is perhaps the state where maximum number of strikes take place?
“I know films can be made on Inner Line Permit or Armed Forces Special Powers Act, but to make such films, you need to be completely dedicated to it. You can’t work on multiple projects when you have to decide to make films based on reality,” he said.
Since he is still a newbie in the industry, he wants to focus on fiction only as of now.
“We have thought of doing five projects. We have started working on the screenplay of the first one. At least, two of the films should release by mid of next year,” said the filmmaker, who also takes up advertising projects and does architecture concept designing to earn his livelihood.
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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