Hindi
Fan fans a disastrous box office week
MUMBAI: This has been a disastrous week at the box office with exhibitors taking a big hit. This comes soon after the setback as they were made to pay high MGs and advances for Fan which they could not recoup. The three small time films released this week, Laal Rang, Nil Battey Sannata and Santa Banta Pvt Ltd have been rejected outright with their collections limited to a few lakhs each day of their opening weekend. Sadly for the exhibitors, they have nothing to curtail the shows of these films, as is done usually, with other films such as Jungle Book has. Fan is in its third week and limited footfalls, would have no takers anymore, since its collections went only downhill from the fourth day onwards.
Nil Battey Sannata had a title that went over one’s head, these titles fail to tell a prospective viewer what is in the offing. The film has merit and was also exempted from paying entertainment tax in Delhi and UP state. If other states also grant it exemption, as it deserves to, it will be too late to help the film. The film could not put together even Rs one crore for its opening weekend.
The makers may, however, take solace from the fact that, having been shot entirely in UP, this low budget film’s investment would be assured from the subsidy scheme of the UP government.
Laal Rang drew a few hundred more footfalls over others due to Randeep Hooda in the lead, yet remained in the Rs one crore range over the weekend. Hooda does not yet enjoy the status to assure a multi crore opener.
Santa Banta Pvt Ltd may well be the frontrunner for the status of the year’s worst, amateurish and juvenile film. To add to its problems, the film was withdrawn from many cinema halls due to the Sikh community protesting against defamatory and derogatory projection of the community.
The Jungle Book continued to do roaring business. The film has added an impressive Rs 46.8 core in its second week to take its two week total to Rs 120.8 crore. The trend for the third week is steady.
Fan, which had a reasonable opening on day one, it being a national holiday, started dropping from day two and three, failing to add the weekend audience. However, the drop from Monday onwards for rest of the four days was rather steep. The film could add about 30 per cent for the next four days to its three day opening weekend collections to end its first week with Rs 71.5 crore with the second weekend adding another Rs 7.75 crore.
KI & Ka added Rs 1.45 crore. The film’s three week tally stands at Rs 50.65 crore.
Kapoor & Sons collected Rs 20 lakh in its fifth week, taking its five week total to Rs 72.1 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.
