Hindi
Gangs of Wasseypur kicks off IFFLA
NEW DELHI: Anurag Kashyap‘s ‘Gang of Wasseypur‘ was the opening film at the 11th Annual Indian Film festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood.
"Gangs of Wasseypur" had also been screened in Cannes last year in the ‘Directors Fortnight‘ section.
The festival has included a sneak preview of Mira Nair‘s new political thriller ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist‘ (with an international cast running from Kiefer Sutherland to Shabana Azmi) and the festival will close with Deepa Mehta‘s cinematic translation of Salman‘s Rushdie‘s novel ‘Midnight‘s Children‘ starring Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, and Anupam Kher.
The festivalwill also pay a tribute to ‘King of Romance‘ director Yash Chopra that includes his last venture ‘Jab Tak hai Jaan‘ along with other hits like ‘Chandni‘, ‘Silsila‘, and ‘Kabhi Kabhie‘.
Other films at the festival include ‘Filmistaan‘ – debut feature by Nitin Kakkar – and ‘Eega‘ a Telugu language resurrection drama which is loosely based on the film ‘Makhii‘.
A full length documentary, ‘Celluloid Man‘ on the living legend P K Nair who brought film archiving to India as the founder of the National Film Archive of India will also be screened at the IFFLA this year.
Other short films include ‘Tatpaschat‘, ‘Dosa Hunt‘, ‘Here and away‘, ‘Homecoming‘, ‘The queen of my dreams‘, ‘Rags to Pads‘, ‘Recurrence‘, Vasan Bala‘s ‘Peddlers‘, Hansal Mehta‘s ‘Shahid‘, and Anand Gandhi‘s ‘Ship of Theseus‘.
There are two discussion sessions. The first is ‘Laughing At Ourselves- A Conversation with Actors and Creatives‘ with Kunal Nayyar (actor, Big Bang Theory), Hannah Simone (actor, New Girl), Sarayu Rao (actor, Monday Mornings), Luvh Rakhe (writer, New Girl), and Sunil Nayar (executive producer, Revenge), and moderated by Parvesh Cheena (actor, Outsourced).
The second panel is on "Today‘s Pioneer Voices Changing the Landscape of Indian Cinema" moderated by Lisa Tsering (The Hollywood Reporter), and featuring Vasan Bala, Anand Gandhi, Hansal Mehta and Nitin Kakkar.
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.
