Hindi
A boring week for box office
MUMBAI: Shaukeens, the remake of 1982 Basu Chatterjee film, Shaukeen, starring old stalwarts Ashok Kumar, Utpal Dutt and AK Hangal is below the mark. The three characters being re-enacted by Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor and Piyush Mishra are no patch on the veterans they replace. Plus, the script has been mutilated badly in an attempt to better it (old classics can’t be bettered). The film opened low despite a weak opposition. And, the film has managed to collect just Rs 13.5 crore for its opening weekend.
Rang Rasiya, an attempt to sell some nudity in the name of an artistic biopic about a celebrated artist Raja Ravi Varma, has not worked. Biopics about known recent heroes don’t work with our audience and this film working was a long shot. The film fares poorly, missing a first day crore by miles and going onto end the weekend with a poor Rs 2.1 crore.
Super Nani fails at the box office. The subject, despite Rekha enacting the protagonist, is outdated and treated badly. The film has managed to collect a meagre Rs 2.75 crore in its first week.
Roar, a rare film on human vs man eater tigers in a game of survival offered some novelty value which was not enough to save it at the box office. Laden with heavy special effects, which costs dearly, the film has managed just Rs 7.85 crore in its first week.
Happy New Year, despite its negative reports, gets the advantage of poor oppositions and does better than merited in its second week. Even while on decline after its opening day, the film manages to collect Rs 32.4 crore in its second week taking its two week total to Rs 162.4 crore.
Haidar has added Rs 10 lakh in its fifth week to take its five week total to Rs 40.5 crore.
Bang Bang has collected Rs 15 lakh in its fifth week to take its five week total to Rs 145.75 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.
