Movies
Eros’ Telugu film ‘Dictator’ completes first schedule in Hyd; moves to Europe
MUMBAI: Eros International Media has completed the first schedule of its Telugu production – Natasimha Balakrishna’s Dictator in Hyderabad.
Eros International Media managing director Sunil Lulla said, “Telugu cinema is going through an exciting phase and we are very happy to associate with the best talent in the industry. After the success of our maiden Telugu production, Srimanthudu, we are happy to share that the shooting part of our upcoming Telugu movie Dictator with Natasimha Balakrishna and Sriwass is going on in full swing. With Dictator, we aim to further expand and strengthen Eros’ footprint in south Indian cinema.”
Produced by Eros International in association with Vedaashwa Creations, the film is directed by Sriwass and marks as Balakrishna’s 99th film. The action entertainer also stars Anjali and Sonal Chauhan along with Ravi Kishan, Sayaji Shinde, Nazar and Prudhvi amongst others.
Veteran writer M Ratnam is the dialogue writer, while writer duo Kona Venkat and Gopi Mohan have penned the story for the film.
Sriwass said, “We have successfully completed the first schedule recently and I’m thankful to Eros for making available all the resources that I needed for filming. We’re now going ahead with full gusto for our upcoming foreign schedule in Europe where we will be canning some talkie, action and songs. I’m confident that Dictator will become a hugely successful milestone in Eros’ journey. Dictator is going to be an eye feast for the audience as we’ve got a great story that will be told with great production values.”
The film is being picturised in Hyderabad, Delhi and some locations in Europe.
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.
