Hindi
Rama goes unnoticed; ‘Ae Dil…’ made Rs 78 cr, Shivaay Rs 28 cr in first week
This week had a solo release, Mahayoddha Rama (Animation); the week after Diwali saw two releases, namely, Shivaay and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. However, the film, lying in cans for eight years now, failed to draw audience. Lacking in publicity and promotion, the film went unnoticed.
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil had a below par opening and, as the reports that came out from the early audience went against the film, it deteriorated on Saturday and Sunday leading to a weak opening weekend of Rs 35.25 crore. However, after Diwali, the film peaked on Monday almost doubling its opening day figures. The collections remained strong even on Tuesday, being a holiday and a day of family outing. Wednesday onwards, the film found its own level to match its merit as the collections dropped for the film to close its first week with a tally of Rs 78.2crore.
hivaay, Ajay Devgn’s second attempt at direction with this action adventure, did not generate the expected anxiety and faced a poor opening day response. The collections remained static on the lower side on Saturday and Sunday as the film could put together just Rs 27.8 crore for its first weekend braving dull Diwali days.
However, the next two days into the new week, the film made the most of two holidays on Monday and Tuesday as the collections on both days took a massive leap. By then, Devgn had also deleted about 10 minutes of length from the film following reports of the 172 minute length affecting collections.
Collections dropped thereafter on Wednesday and Thursday as the film collected Rs 65.1crore for its first week.
Minor releases like 31st October (tax free in Punjab), My Father Iqbal, Ek Tera Saath, Gandhigiri rated as total loss projects.
Motu Patlu (3-D; Animation) added about Rs 10 lakh in its third week to take its three week total to Rs 4.25 crore.
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.
