Hindi
‘Children of War’ releases in India and Bangladesh
NEW DELHI: ‘Children of War’, a chilling tale of the freedom movement in (then) east Pakistan for creation of a free Bangladesh and its effect on the common people, will be released simultaneously in India and Bangladesh.
However, the version released in Bangladesh is dubbed in Bengali, according to producer Soumya Joshi Devvrat.
The only other time an Indian film had simultaneous release in these two countries was that of Goutam Ghose’ Bengali film ‘Moner Manush’ which was based on the life of Lalan Fakir and had a Bangladeshi co-producer.
Asked why the film has one song in Bengali while the others are in Hindi, she said it was because the song tells a story of emotions of the people at the time.
Loosely-inspired by the unfinished biography of Banga Bandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who led the Mukti Bahini, the film was released in India and Bangladesh in 450 screens.
Inspired by the biography, Devrat and her husband Mrityunjay who has directed the film researched several documents and also met some Indian Army veterans. She says that as several documents on Bangladesh were not available in India, they had to be procured from the United Kingdom.
The movie begins in March 1971 and covers a period of nine months showcasing the atrocities and the crude inhumane methods adopted by the military of West Pakistan. With the support of the Americans and the Chinese, the Pakistani soldiers go on a rampage killing and raping hundreds of thousands of people across the region.
She reveals that the choice to follow three separate stories during the Bangladesh War was a deliberate decision to give a wider picture of what happened before the Indian Army stepped in, as taking a linear story would not have done justice to the story about the birth of a new country.
Thus, the narrative follows the story of a boy, his sister and his father’s word, a liberal patriotic journalist who is forced to take to arms, a war child’s search for acceptance, and the atrocity of the Pakistani army which raped over 400,000 women and killed millions of people. As the film progresses towards its climax, the three stories begin to intertwine with one another.
The film stars Riddhi Sen, Rucha Inamdar, Victor Banerjee, Farooque Shaikh, Indraneil Sengupta, Raima Sen, Tilotama Shome, Rupa Ganguly, and Pavan Malhotra in a powerful negative role.
The film has music by Ishaan Chhabra with songs by Sidhant Mathur. Cinematography is by Fasahat Khan with editing by Apurva Asrani.
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.
