Hindi
Barfi! collects Rs 346 mn in opening weekend
Mumbai: The cautious limited screen release strategy with concentration on multiplexes for Barfi! has helped get good dividends for UTV. Despite mixed reports from viewers, the film has collected as much as Rs 346 million in its opening weekend.
However, the limited confidence in the film has created a dilemma for the company, which has another film, Heroine, lined up for release next Friday, 21 September. If Barfi! continues to do well at the multiplexes, as the exhibitors think it will, it would not be wise to discontinue the film for the sake of Heroine.
The exhibitors are advocating one or two shows per screen to Heroine and let the already proven Barfi! enjoy prime time shows. UTV could have planned the release of Heroine for 28th September which would have allowed a two week gap between the films and also helped skip the Ganeshostav week which does affect collections in parts of India.
The other two releases of the week, Jeena Hai Toh Thok Daal and Qayamat Hi Qayamat, failed to make any mark at the box office.
Raaz3, which took an excellent opening, ended its first week with a rewarding Rs 552.5 million. The second weekend is reasonably good as the film added another Rs 90.5 million taking its 10-day tally to Rs 643 million.
Joker collected Rs 16 million in its second week to take its total collection to Rs 207 million. Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi collected Rs 6 million in its third week taking its total collection to Rs 120 million.
Ek Tha Tiger continued to brave all fresh releases and managed to sustain at the box office. It added Rs 35.5 million for the fourth week. With this, the film‘s 30-day collection totalled Rs 1.98 billion.
Gangs Of Wasseypur II collected Rs 1.1 million in its fifth week to take its total collection to Rs 231.1 million.
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.
