Hindi
Box Office: ‘Katti Batti’ takes poor opening with Rs 15.5 crore
MUMBAI: It all started with Hollywood film, Love Story (1970) based on a bestseller novel of same name by Erich Segal about a couple madly in love only to realise one of them is terminally ill. The Rajshris followed it up with its Indian version in the musical hit, Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se (1978) while Hrishikesh Mukerjee used the theme again, albeit, with no similarities with the two in Anand (1981), which went on to become an all-time classic. Since then, quite a few attempts have been made to use a terminal illness and, except Kal Ho Na Ho in (2003), none seem to have worked.
Katti Batti takes this theme and brutalises it badly. And, pays for it at both, the media as well as the box office. Besides poor merits, the film cuts corners heavily on supporting star cast. Having taken a poor opening, the film could not better its Friday collections on Saturday or on Sunday. All the film had to show for its opening weekend is Rs 15.5 crore.
Meeruthiya Gangsters fails to find an audience.
Hero, an attempt to recreate the magic of the 1983 musical hit of the same name, proves disastrous. After a low opening weekend, the film closes its first week with Rs 29.2 crore not being able to sustain during the week days.
Welcome Back did reasonable business in its first week but started losing steam thereafter despite poor new releases to affect its business. The film managed to add about 25 per cent of its first week total collecting Rs 17.5 crore in second week to take its two week total to Rs 90.6 crore.
Phantom emerges a loser at the box office managing to add just about Rs 60 lakh in its third week to take its three week tally to Rs 50.5 crore.
Manjhi: The Mountain Man collects Rs 18 lakh in its fourth week to take its four week total to Rs 12.88 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.
