Hindi
Barfi and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara win awards at 6th Cinemascapes
NEW DELHI: UTV Motion Picture‘s movie starring Ranbir Kapoor ‘Barfi‘, has received an award for the best Hindi film shot on an Indian location. The film is also India‘s official nomination to the Oscars.
Held for the first time, the awards recognized the contribution of cinema to tourism growth. The awards were given away in four different segments by Ramesh Sippy, Mahesh Bhatt and noted film maker and chairman of MAMI Shyam Benegal, and T P Aggarwal, president of IMPPA.
The award was received by Anurag Basu and Siddharth Roy Kapur at the 6th annual Cinemascapes, an event that celebrates the coming together of cinema and tourism, held in Mumbai recently. It brought together 14 exhibiting companies to meet with the professionals in the film fraternity. The event has been supported by the Film and Television Producers Guild of India as its anchor partner since its inception and this year it also became a part of the Mumbai Film Festival.
Ritesh Sidhwani received the award for the best Hindi Film shot on International locations for ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara‘ which has been shot in Spain, a country that received stupendous growth in its Indian arrivals after the release of the film.
The awards also recognized the journey of South Indian films in going aboard. ‘Ordinary‘ and ‘Dookadu‘ were memorable in popularising destinations. Fox Star Studio represented by Vivek Krishnani received an award for the film “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” as the best International film shot on Indian Cinemascapes.
Apart from films, television soaps and TVCs were also recognized for their contribution in popularizing locations in India and Overseas. Balaji film CEO Tanuj Garg the of received an award for the best general entertainment TV fiction shot in an overseas location for ‘Bade Achhe Lagte Hain‘ and Sumit received the best general entertainment TV fiction award on an Indian location for ‘Diya aur Baati‘.
The best TVC shot on a cinemascape – International was ‘Cinthol Soap World‘, while ‘Visa Kashmir‘ received the best TVC shot on cinemascape in India. In addition, the Jury also recognized the contribution made by the directors and cinematographers for films such as ‘Rockstar‘ and ‘Urumi‘.
The contribution made by the destinations was also recognized. Goa was chosen as the best cinemascape destination in India and Thailand as the best cinemascape destination overseas.
The late Yash Chopra was remembered for his outstanding contribution in promoting Cinemascapes in his films over the years and was conferred with a special award by the Jury.
The Film and Television Producers Guild of India was represented by Guild President Mukesh Bhatt and veterans Amit Khanna, Ramesh Sippy, Bobby Bedi and Manish Goswami during the daylong event.
The event was also supported by other leading industry association including the IMPPA with the presence of its president T P Aggarwal, Film Federation of India represented by L. Suresh and Ravi Kottarakara, representatives of Motion Pictures Association of America, and Entertainment Society of Goa CEO Manoj Srivastava.
The award ceremony was preceded by two days of discussing challenges in the sector and how the film industry was reaching out in search for Cinemascapes, to enhance the quality and appeal of cinema, and how destination promoters were eagerly wooing the cinema world, thereby increasing the tourism potential of their destinations.
Japan made its entry into this space in India for the first time, with its futuristic city of Sapporo in the province of Hokkaido coming forward as the platinum partner. Sarawak in Malaysia, teamed with other states in Malaysia and made an aggressive bid for bringing Bollywood to its shores, and also promoted its forthcoming international film festival.
The Indian states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh continued with their support of the event, coming as Platinum and Silver partners, and made impressive product presentations to the film industry.
Zagreb in Croatia came as presentation partner; as did Starwood Hotels and Resorts to sell hotel rooms and also its properties as enviable backdrops for film shootings, both in India and abroad. Individual exhibitors too made their mark. Delhi Tourism is on the anvil to become the single window for cinema shooting in the capital. U-Turn Tax Refund made interesting offers to help get refunds on time and help balance the economics of film shooting; Dubai and Thailand, among others, met with keen film makers and sold their destinations.
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.
