Hindi
Indian box office flexes its muscles in Feb 2025 as Chhaava conquers all
MUMBAI: The Indian cinema landscape is witnessing a box office bonanza in early 2025, with February continuing the strong momentum established in January. The domestic box office is flourishing, with projections indicating a cumulative haul of Rs 2,264 crore for 2025 releases thus far—a whopping 39 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, according to the Ormax Media The India Box Office Report for February 2025.
The Hindi epic Chhaava has emerged as the undisputed champion of February, single-handedly contributing a staggering 53 per cent of the month’s total collections. The film has muscled its way into the record books with earnings exceeding Rs 650 crore, cementing its position among the highest-grossing Hindi films of all time.
Only the Hindi language collections have been tallied in this report, as the Telugu version didn’t swagger into theatres until March 2025. The only other film to smash through the Rs 100 crore barrier in February was the Tamil action-thriller Dragon, which has proven to be a surprise package.
The film has outperformed expectations, even eclipsing the collections of the big-budget Tamil spectacle Vidaamuyarchi—proof that audiences still prefer substance over style when parting with their hard-earned cash.
The re-release trend shows no signs of abating, with nostalgic favourite Sanam Teri Kasam and Christopher Nolan’s mind-bender Interstellar both featuring in the top 10 grossers of the month. It seems cinema-goers are just as keen to revisit classics as they are to embrace new narratives.
With Thandel joining the party in February, Telugu cinema now boasts four entries in the list of highest-grossing films of 2025 so far. Hindi and Tamil industries are tied with three films each, suggesting a healthy competitive balance in the Indian film ecosystem.
Thanks largely to Chhaava’s earth-shattering performance, Hindi language films have increased their market share to 45 per cent for January-February 2025, up from 40 per cent for the entire 2024 calendar year.
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.
