Hindi
Box Office: Rajinikanth’s ‘Kabali’ opens weak; ‘Sultan’ continues to earn big
MUMBAI: Madaari, starring Irrfan Khan and Jimmy Shergill, was expected to draw a fair number of viewers as both enjoy a good following. The film in itself did not provide anything new and came across as a mix of few recent films. Also, for a film aimed at the multiplex audience, the title, Madaari, sounded quite outlandish!
Not able to raise curiosity, the film managed a weak opening at the box office not improving thereafter to end its opening weekend with Rs 8.3 crore.
*M Cream went unnoticed.
*Kabali (Hindi-Dubbed from Tamil), gets a lot of media hype with the media not bothering about Rajinikanth films vis a vis Hindi film audience; in that, he commands no following here as such, neither in dubbed films nor he did in original Hindi films.
Also, filmmaking has moved on which includes the South Indian industry. The concepts have changed now and filmmaking has become technology oriented as special effects have become easier to incorporate. In such an event, you wonder at Kabali which sells the same Rajinikanth being sold since decades; only, here he is much diluted one thanks to age. The film has no gimmickry or gestures associated with Rajinikanth and hand to hand fights are avoided. Compare this to another south Indian film Bahubali,with its youthful star cast, larger than life canvass and special effect wizardry. No use taking viewers for granted, even Rajini fans.
Since the ticket buying moviegoer is immune to such hypes, the film had a low opening response with footfalls varying from 10/15 per cent to 25 per cent and the figures reflecting the fact. The film collected about 3 crore on day one with a negligible raise on days two and three.
The film collected Rs. 12.7 crore for its opening weekend despite an extensive release with over 1000 screens.
*Great Grand Masti fails to add much to its opening weekend figures of 7.8 crore. With the rest of the four days of the week collecting just Rs 4.7 crore to take its first week total to Rs 12.5 crore.
*With an open field and Salman as main attraction, Sultan continues to hold its own as the film collects Rs 277.96 crore at the end of its second week (16 days. The film adds another Rs 11.09 crore for its third weekend taking its 19 day total to Rs 289.05 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.
