Hindi
Box Office: ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2’ takes Rs 21 crore in opening weekend
MUMBAI: ‘It is the season for small budget comedies be it about romance or sex. Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 appeals hugely to youth and proves that a film has to be youth oriented for they are the ones who guarantee a decent opening at the box office and also spread good or bad word of mouth.
Despite very limited promotions, the film took an impressive opening and the figures reflect the fact. The film only showed a marked rise in collections on Saturday and Sunday. And, despite being Navratri period, which is not the best of times for a new release, especially one counting mainly on its youth appeal. The film collected a heartening Rs 20.8 crore in its opening weekend.
Wedding Pullav is poor and failed to get footfalls through its opening weekend.
On the other hand, Jazbaa, a comeback film for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan after a five year break and an expected hat-trick for Irrfan Khan, who has given two much appreciated films in Piku andTalvar, falls prey to its bad scripting and inapt handling. The film could not sustain its collection after its opening weekend and the figures dropped through the week. The film could manage to put together just Rs 20.6 crore for its first week.
Singh Is Bliing loses the plot in its second week with the collections dropping by a major chunk as the film collects Rs 10.5 crore to take its two week total to Rs 72.65.
Talvar maintains a strong trend in its second week cashing in on the appreciation received. The film collects Rs 10.5 crore to take its two week tally to Rs 26 crore.
Kapil Sharma’s Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon has added Rs 75 lakh in its third week to take its three week total to Rs 43.95 crore making a star out of the TV comedian in the process.
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.
