Hindi
Satyagraha ends with Rs 32.5 crore for opening weekend
Prakash Jha’s preachy socio-political film Satyagraha lost the plot as it came into its later part which refused to move and marred the film. The mass single screen cinemas were the first to reject the film. At high end multiplexes the film did well over Saturday and Sunday as its solo release status and face value propped it up and the film ended its opening weekend with Rs 32.5 crore.
This is Prakash Jha’s yet another attempt at addressing the citizens of India to rise up and bring about a revolution. The film has an ensemble cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Manoj Bajpayee, Arjun Ramphal, Kareena Kapoor and Amrita Rao among others.
Madras Café starring John Abraham and Nargis Fakhri has not worked with the audience as, after a weekend of Rs 18 crore, the film has settled for Rs 31.45 crore for the first week. The makers of the film are now planning to request for tax exemption considering the message being delivered by the film.
Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobara the sequel to Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai starring Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha has done a little over 10 per cent of its first week collection by adding Rs 5.75 crore and taking its two week tally to Rs 54.55 crore.
Chennai Express that paired Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone once again after Om Shanti Om has done fairly well in its third week by collecting Rs 16 crore to take its three week total to Rs 194.7 crore.
B.A. Pass has collected Rs 35 lakh for its fourth week to take the total to Rs 7.4 crore.
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag the biopic on the great Indian athlete Milkha Singh starring Farhan Akhtar and Sonam Kapoor has added Rs 50 lakh in its seventh week to take its seven week total to Rs 106.85 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.
