Hindi
Rs 350 cr in 17-day indomitable filmy ‘Dangal’
MUMBAI: There is not much in the offing except, December 23 carry forward, Dangal. There was no release on 30th since it is a norm not to fall in the shadow of a major release like Dangal as well as to avoid the year end Friday where the New Year eve celebrations affect box office collections negatively.
The film enjoys the benefit of exemption from paying Entertainment Tax in states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Chhattisgarh,
The first Friday also went blank as the one scheduled release, Coffee With D, could not hit the screens for whatever reasons. As it were, the first Friday is considered to be unfruitful for the box office since films released on this day usually go unnoticed.
*In such an event, Dangal kept making the most of its overwhelming popularity and positive word of mouth. The film went on shattering record after records.
-Dangal registered the highest first Sunday by collecting Rs 42.35 crore and crossed Rs 100 crore mark in three days to finish its opening weekend with an impressive Rs 106.95 crore.
-The film’s first week figures stopped just short of Rs 200 crore mark at Rs 197.55 crore.
-Again, the film had a terrific second Sunday (day 10) of Rs 31.27 crore to mark second weekend of Rs 72.93 crore to take its 10 day total to Rs 271.24 crore.
-The collections held on well as the film finished its second week with 115.96 crore and taking its two week total past 300 milestone crore at Rs 313.51 crore.
– With a healthy third weekend of Rs 31.89 crore, the film’s collections stand at Rs 345.4 crore in 17 days.
*Befikre has collected about Rs 10 lakh in fourth week to take its four week tally to Rs 59.6 crore.
*Kahaani 2 has added Rs 10 lakh in its fifth week taking its five week tally to Rs 30.8 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.
