Hindi
Dismal weekend at the Box Office
MUMBAI: The past weekend has proved to be dismal for the box office with three releases, which all vie for the worst performer tag. Khamoshiyan turns out to be a drab affair with the Bhatt touch visible only in its soundtrack. The film got poor word of mouth and managed to collect just Rs 5.75 crore in its opening weekend.
Rahashya may be based on a real life, well documented double murder case, but gets just about as much attention from moviegoers as yesterday’s headline. And, this story has become stale by all standards. The film opened to a very poor response with no hope of catching up despite being a well-made film. The film had a poor opening weekend with about Rs 20 lakh.
Hawaizaada, a biopic of a maverick self-styled scientist from Maharashtra, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, from which the trade had some hope, comes a cropper. The film comes across as badly scripted and directed one lacking consistency and having no sense of length. A boring fare, the film suffered further after being slaughtered by critics as well as on social media. The poor collections reflect this as the film could manage mere Rs 1.8 crore over its first weekend. It failed to touch Rs 1 crore figure on any of the three days over the weekend.
Baby has not lived up to the hype created in the media before release. The film had way too much similarity in story and substance with a couple of recent films but was worse than them. The film is too verbose with plans of action rather than action itself which is what people want to see from a spy movie. The film collected Rs 52.1 crore in its first week. With three very poor oppositions in second week, the film gets a chance to reduce its losses.
I (dubbed) has collected Rs 1.2 crore in its second week to take its two week total to 11.3 crore. On the other hand, Dolly Ki Doli is a loser facing rejection from day one. The film manages to end its first week with figures of Rs 11.9 crore. Alone adds Rs 2.25 crore in its second week to take its two week tally to Rs 19.5 crore.
PK nears the end of its run at the box office as the film adds Rs 1.3 crore in its sixth week to take its six week total to Rs 329.6 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.
