Entertainment
‘Kabali’: Rajinikanth almost round-the-clock in Mumbai theatre
Mumbai: On the opening day of the upcoming Tamil film “Kabali” — Rajinikanth will be seen on the screen of a Mumbai cinema hall practically round-the-clock, with six shows scheduled on the inaugural day on Friday.
The 74-year old, 700-seater Aurora Theatre in King’s Circle, a bastion of Tamils settled in Mumbai, will start shows right from 3 a.m., and continue at 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m, and finally the last show at 9 p.m.
“All the seats for all the shows are fully booked,” said theatre owner Nambi Rajan, who is usually clean-shaven but has sprouted a bushy grey-white beard in tandem with Rajinikanth’s get-up in “Kabali” for the upcoming hit and hot season.
The film production team has already launched its on-ground promotions for “Kabali” from Tuesday in an open-top bus from Aurora Theatre attracting thousands of Rajinikanth fans daily till the release.
In another first for Mumbai filmgoers, two gigantic cutouts of Rajinikanth and a massive poster will be put up at the theatre entrance.
Rajan said that the entire theatre has been decked up to celebrate “Kabali”, including a fresh coat of paint inside and outside, a new screen, glittering clean ambience and shining lights.
After the inaugural day, the theatre will get back to its normal four-shows-daily regimen, for which it has reported heavy advance bookings.
The opening day itself will be a ‘Thalaiva festival’ with a huge procession of Rajinikanth fans after prayers at the famous Ram Mandir, a traditional band of huge drums, dancing and celebrations marking “Kabali”.
A theatre manager said that well known ophthalmologist S. Natarajan of Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital – himself a die-hard Rajini fan – will conduct a free eye camp for all.
Rajinikanth fan clubs from all over Mumbai will organise blood donation drives at the cinema hall and the patrons will also contribute to various charities on the opening day.
Aurora Theatre, which was inaugurated in 1942, was one of the few good cinema halls exhibiting Hollywood films till the 1980s.
Rajan took over the theatre from its Parsi-German couple owners – Bejan Bharucha and Gertrude of the All India Pictures Pvt Ltd cinema chain – in the 1980s.
Since it was a predominantly Tamil pocket of central Mumbai, Rajan started to have at least one Tamil film show daily and the theatre became an instant hit with the local Tamil community.
Earlier, Aurora Theatre has hosted films like Rajinikanth’s “Annamalai”, “Sivaji” and Kamal Haasan’s “Thevar Magan”.
Now, after “Kabali”, Rajan and his Aurora Theatre are keeping their fingers crossed for the next Rajinikanth release, “2.0” in 2017.
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.
Content provided by Adverloom
Cheers and Cheers: Barzilla’s Joyful Ode to Inclusivity and Celebration
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists
Lockdowns in China Force Urban Communities to Defy Censorship and Vent Frustration Online
What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
IPL 20202 UPDATE: KXIP vs MI IPL Dream11 Team Prediction for Today Match, Update Point Table of all Team.
In a Live debate AAP leader Syed Asad Abbas hurls abuses to BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
‘India’s Most Wanted’ trailer out Arjun Kapoor on hunt of Osama-Bin-Laden
Time to move on: Sonakshi on Shatrughan’s joining Congress
