Hindi
Box Office: ‘Dilwale’ leads with Rs 96.3 crore; ‘Bajirao Mastani’ tots Rs 81.8 crore
MUMBAI: There’s been a media created hype about the box office race between the two big releases of 18 December viz Dilwale and Bajirao Mastani. A film can’t be a hit or a box office success just because it is catching up with another film! The media has no sense of investment versus returns. The media believes in a Rs 100 crore film not realising that even at Rs 200 crore, a film like Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo will not cover its investments. To carry on this count, both Dilwale and Bajirao Mastani are yet far behind their recovery targets.
Bajirao Mastani is a hugely costly film needing over Rs 300 crore worldwide for recovery. The film’s best performance comes from Western India while, otherwise, it has been faring reasonably well only at select multiplexes. It has a few takers at single screens at B and C town cinemas. The film has ended its first week with Rs 81.8 crore.
Dilwale, on the other hand, faced a lot of resistance because of the film’s producer and star’s untimely comment on the country’s character. That made bad business sense. Its lack of single screen bookings also marred its prospects to some extent. The film suffered on both counts. There were calls for boycott by various organisations. Yet, the film got a respectable opening but could not gather pace thereafter. The movie has been sold to local distributors for a huge consideration. Delhi Punjab, for instance for Rs 35 crore; CP for Rs 7.5 crore and such guys tend to lose badly.
While the attention was being diverted to the race between two films, the fact remains that, even with its tally being a little ahead of Bajirao Mastani, Dilwale does not amount to much on its own either. The film opened with fair collections on Friday with Rs 22 crore and ended its first week run with Rs 96.3 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.
