Hindi
Inauspicious period for films
MUMBAI: The tradition was that no films released during ‘shraaddh’ as it was considered inauspicious. The exhibitors, in such an event, had to feed the cinema halls with either repeat run of old hits or dubbed films from southern India. The tradition has been shelved in the new scheme of things.
The week saw numerous new film releases, most of them could not even manage a decent exploitation as in playtime. A few shows at odd times which, too, failed to draw footfalls in most cases.
*Of the new releases, Banjo, a musical about a street-side banjo player who has been noticed by an American talent scout, offered best hopes, if any, to the exhibitors to feed this dull period. However, the film did not have much to offer merit-wise to do well even in the best of periods. A routine story of an underdog, this musical lacked what was needed the most: hit music.
The film opened with a poor response with opening day collections barely managing to cross a crore-mark. Saturday remained as bad while Sunday improved only marginally. The film collected Rs 4.45 crore for its first weekend.
*Days of Tafree: In Class Out Of Class, a Hindi remake of the Gujarati hit, Chhello Divas, failed to repeat its success. This youth-oriented college campus fun film did not quite appeal to its target audience. In fact, there were no takers from day one as the collections showed. The film barely managed to collect Rs 50 lakh for its opening weekend.
*Parched, a critically acclaimed film, remains just that as the collections remained in the vicinity of Rs 50 lakh for its opening weekend.
*Dil Sala Sanki, Wah Taj, Chapekar Brothers flopped badly.
*Pink, which did well during its opening weekend, especially on Saturday and Sunday, started dropping on Monday to settle within the range such films have set: lifetime Rs 40-crore range. The film collected Rs 35.5 crore for its first week.
However, with all the new releases proving to be duds at the box office, the film’s collections stand to get a fillip in its second weekend.
*Raaz: Reboot could add little during the remaining four days after a poor opening weekend. The franchise was stretched a bit too far without caring for substance. The film ended its first week with a mere Rs 22.7 crore.
*Baar Baar Dekho added Rs 1.5 crore in its second week to take its two week total to Rs 27.6 crore.
*Freaky Ali collected Rs 1.25 crore in its second week taking its two week total to Rs 11.95 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.
