Hindi
1920 Evil Returns trumps Chicken Khurana
MUMBAI: 1920 – Evil Returns, a sequel, collected the highest in a week that saw seven releases, netting Rs 125 million in its opening weekend as it drew strong audiences from second rung multiplexes and single screen cinemas. The collections today are steady.
Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, a Punjabi romantic comedy, has not been appreciated even in North where it was expected to do well. The film has collected Rs 47 million in its first weekend.
The other four releases of the week, Ata Pata Laapat, Le Gaya Saddam, Future Toh Bright Hai Ji, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (revised restored version) and Sons Of Ram, which is co-owned by Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) Media and Cartoon Network.
Sons of Ram is ACK Media‘s first feature film titled ‘Sons of Ram – Heroes will Rise‘.
Chakravyuh, a dry subject on the Naxals vs System, lacked totally in entertainment quotient and found few takers. The film had a poor run at the box office with collections of Rs 160 million to show for its first nine days.
Student of the Year benefitted due to the weeklong Dussehra holidays in Delhi- NCR and Dussehra holiday in general to collect a reasonable Rs 142 million in its second week, thus taking its two-week tally to Rs 602 million.
English Vinglish added Rs 19 million in its fourth week taking its four week total to Rs 358 million.
OMG Oh My God! braved the dull period and an onslaught of new releases to hold steady in its fifth week by collecting Rs 195 million, taking its total to Rs 756.5 million (excluding figures from Eastern circuits).
Barfi! has come to the end of its fruitful run at the box office. The UTV Motion Pictures release collected Rs 3.5 million in its seventh week, taking its tally swell to Rs 1.08 billion.
Hindi
India’s telecom subscribers cross 1.32 billion in February 2026
Broadband base swells past 1.06 billion as Jio and Airtel tighten grip on the market.
MUMBAI: India’s telecom sector is ringing in steady growth once again adding millions of new connections every month while the race for broadband supremacy continues to heat up like a fiercely contested cricket match. According to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 1 April 2026, the total telephone subscriber base in the country reached 1,321.31 million at the end of February 2026. This marked a net addition of 7.31 million subscribers during the month, translating into a monthly growth rate of 0.56 per cent.
Wireless subscribers (including mobile and Fixed Wireless Access) stood at 1,273.31 million, registering a net addition of 6.97 million and a growth rate of 0.55 per cent. Within this, urban wireless connections grew to 730.75 million (growth 0.70 per cent), while rural wireless subscribers reached 542.56 million (growth 0.35 per cent).
Wireline subscribers, though much smaller in scale, showed slightly faster growth. The total wireline base increased to 47.99 million, with a net addition of 0.34 million and a monthly growth rate of 0.70 per cent. Urban areas continued to dominate wireline connections with a share of 89.41 per cent.
Overall tele-density in India improved to 92.66 per cent. Urban tele-density stood at 150.68 per cent, while rural tele-density edged up to 60.02 per cent.
The broadband subscriber base crossed a significant milestone, reaching 1,059.05 million at the end of February 2026. This reflected a healthy net addition of 6.33 million subscribers and a monthly growth rate of 0.60 per cent from January’s figure of 1,052.72 million.
Segment-wise, mobile wireless access continued to drive the majority of growth with 996.52 million subscribers. Fixed Wireless Access (including 5G FWA) added 16.51 million, while wired broadband stood at 46.02 million.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. maintained its commanding lead with 519.64 million broadband subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd. followed with 364.14 million, Vodafone Idea Ltd. with 129.36 million, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. with 28.70 million, and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. with 2.38 million.
Together, these top five players command a massive 98.60 per cent share of the total broadband market.
In the wireless (mobile) segment, private operators continued to dominate with 92.59 per cent market share, leaving public sector undertakings (BSNL and MTNL) with just 7.41 per cent.
Out of the total 1,257.29 million wireless (mobile) subscribers, 1,177.60 million were active on the peak Visitor Location Register (VLR) date, representing an impressive 93.66 per cent activity rate. Bharti Airtel led in this metric with 99.42 per cent of its subscribers active.
Meanwhile, 14.47 million subscribers submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in February, indicating healthy competition and customer churn across zones.
While urban areas still lead in absolute numbers, rural connectivity is slowly catching up. Rural wireless tele-density stood at 59.46 per cent, compared with the much higher urban figure of 142.32 per cent.
Fixed Wireless Access using 5G technology also showed promising traction, growing to 11.93 million subscribers. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are the primary players driving this segment.
The data paints a picture of a maturing yet still rapidly expanding telecom ecosystem. With total telephone subscribers now well past the 1.32 billion mark and broadband users comfortably above 1.06 billion, India continues to solidify its position as one of the world’s largest and most dynamic digital markets.
From bustling city streets to remote villages, more Indians are staying connected than ever before proving that when it comes to telecom, the country’s appetite for growth shows no signs of hanging up anytime soon.
