Hindi
Kabaddi forms the subject of new feature film being released next month
NEW DELHI: With Kabaddi getting tonnes of attention as a sports format in the country, Bollywood is now set to release a feature film on the game.
Set to release on 7 November, Badlapur Boys will be produced by Karrm Movie. The movie revolves around about some boys of Badlapur village, who breathe and live Kabaddi and aspire to make a name out of the game, not only for themselves, but also for their village. However, the protagonist’s dream is slightly different and it binds the film right till the end.
Annu Kapoor plays the role of a Kabaddi coach in the film. The hero of the film, Nishshan, has acted in the film David and Subhash Ghai’s Cycle Kick, along with many other Malyalam movies. Badlapur Boys also stars Sharanya Mohan, who has acted in more than 16 South Indian movies as the main lead but this is her first Hindi film.
Although this is the directorial debut of the film’s director Shailesh Verma, he has written various daily soaps and movies, including Salman Khan starrer Veer. He is also planning to start his next movie right after the release of Badlapur Boys.
Actress Kishori Shahane plays the hero’s mother and Pooja Gupta, who had starred in Vicky Donor, Mickey Virus and Oh My God, is also a part of the film. Other artistes who worked in the movie are Boloram Das, Nitin Jadhav, Shashank Udaypurkar, Mazhar Khan, Ankit Sharma, Vineet, among many more.
Music of the film has been composed by Shamir Tandon and Sachin Gupta. Words to the melodies have been given by lyricist Sameer Anjaan, which have been sung by singers Sukhwinder Singh, Shaan, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Shreya Ghoshal, Javed Ali, Ritu Pathak. Choreography has been done by Saroj Khan.
Badlapur Boys is Karrm Movies’ first Hindi film. Their Marathi film Razakar is also ready to release.
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.
