Hindi
PVR Director’s Rare Label shortlists six films for release
Mumbai: PVR Director‘s Rare label has shortlisted six films like Celluloid Man, Jai Bhim Comrade, Gulabi Gang, Songs of Mashangva, Spirit Unbound and Children of the Pyre for release.
Celluloid Man: A Film On P.K. Nair by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur honours the contribution of P K Nair to disseminate film culture in India. Nair was the founder-director of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), Pune. His efforts have resulted in a coveted collection of 12,000 films at the NFAI from a start-up of 124 films.
The film, that was screened at the 39th edition of the Telluride Film Festival (TFF) in Colorado, USA, is scheduled to screen under the Real Reel Section of the 14th Mumbai Film Festival.
Jai Bhim Comrade, by Anand Patwardhan, follows the music and the tradition of activism of the Dalits in India over 14 years. It won a Special Mention at the Dubai International Film Festival 2011 followed by an award at the 12th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation films. It also competed at the 36th Hong Kong International Film Festival and screened at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival 2012.
Gulabi Gang, by Nishtha Jain, traces Sampat Pal and the fiery women of her Gulabi Gang who take up the fight against gender violence, caste oppression and widespread corruption in Bundelkhand. The film will be screened under the Reflecting Images: Masters programme of the 25th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Gulabi Gang was awarded a $25,000 grant from the Sundance Documentary Film Program.
Songs of Mashangva, by Oinam Doren, traces the music of the Tangkhul Naga and its return to the modern age: as Naga Folk Blues. The protagonist Rewben Mashangva travels through the villages of the Tangkhul Naga to talk to the old people and collect songs and instruments. The film won the 58th National Award for Best Ethnographic Film in the non-feature film category and was in competition at the 18th edition of the Lessinia Film Festival.
Spirit Unbound by Tonmoy Saha is a musical that explores the independent music genre in the India. The film features lives of veteran and upcoming independent musicians in the country.
Children of the Pyre, by Rajesh Jala, is a 2008 film that documents the lives of seven children working in extreme condition at the cremation ground in Manikarnika in Banaras. The film has been screened at more than fifty international film festivals.
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.
