Hindi
Box Office: Mom & Guest bring solace after Tubelight fails
Two veterans, both with a huge fan following in their peak, Sridevi in Mom and Paresh Rawal in Guest Iin London, were expected to lead the charge at the box office. If one looked at the making of both the films, the production costs looks moderate. But, what matters is how much the theatrical rights have been sold for. And, in that sense, Mom riding the crest.
The best recent film of moderate budget to excel has been Hindi Medium which achieved a high figure of about Rs 65 crore at the domestic box office. In case of Mom, the price at which it is sold and the kind of reports it has generated, it may fall short of its target by lengths. The difference is that, while Hindi Medium was an entertainer, Mom is a designed to be heavy film. And, they are not usually worth Rs 200 to 1000 that their admission rates command. No need to say, the eventual sufferers are the cinema chains.
Mom had an inherent drawback in that an earlier film, Raveen Tandon starrer, Maatr, was based on the same theme. Since, the films are now made for the multiplex audience, a lot of the patrons would realize that Mom is just a female version of 1974 Hollywood trendsetter, Death Wish.
*Mom opened to very weak response on Friday despite an overambitious release strategy as it was released across more screens than the film justified. The result was that many screens showed collection in few hundreds which showed on the film’s first day collections of a bare Rs 2.4 crore (Rs 24 million). The film showed an expected rise on Saturday and Sunday. The weekend collections according to trade sources are estimates are little over Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) while those released by the makers are over 14 crore.
*Guest Iin London proves a damp squib. Following in the formula of Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge, which was no great shakes in itself, the film backfires in Toto. One must be really out of sync with the realities to think that another instalment of Paresh Rawal giving a noisy outlet to his stomach problem amounted to a comedy! It is a juvenile stuff to say the least. With the first day figures of Rs 1.2 crore.
*Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha has had a poor run at the box office with just Rs 1.05 crore to show while the weekend collected Rs 4.2 crore.
* Tubelight, Salman Khan’s home production, sold at an exorbitant price which needed to do a business which none of his films has done before, is a total disaster. Strange that the film won’t even manage a lifetime business of what his film Sultan did in its opening weekend. The film had collected over 180 crore in its five day extended weekend.
The film has added Rs 10.6 crore in its second week taking its two week tally to Rs 114.3 crore.
*Bahubali2: The Conclusion has added about Rs 30 lakh in its 10th week.
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.
