Hindi
YIFF honours 50 years of Nishant with Naseeruddin Shah
MUMBAI: Half a century on, the revolution still reels. The Yellowstone International Film Festival (YIFF) 2025 will open with a special tribute to Shyam Benegal’s path-breaking classic Nishant, marking 50 years of one of Indian cinema’s most defining social dramas.
The commemorative screening, set for 13 November 2025 at St. Andrew’s Auditorium, Bandra, will be graced by veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah, who made one of his earliest and most memorable appearances in the film.
Released in 1975, Nishant brought together a powerhouse cast including Smita Patil, Girish Karnad, Amrish Puri, and Naseeruddin Shah, earning the National Film Award for best feature film in Hindi and international acclaim at Cannes. Renowned for its unflinching social realism and moral complexity, the film remains a cornerstone of Benegal’s cinema.
“Fifty years since its release, Nishant still mirrors power, morality, and human resilience,” said YIFF festival director Anshika Singh. “To honour both Nishant’s golden jubilee and Naseeruddin Shah’s 50 years in cinema, we’re thrilled to screen the newly restored 2K version at our opening ceremony. Having Shah Sahab with us makes this moment truly special.”
The tribute marks the official opening of YIFF 2025, a week-long celebration of Indian and global cinema from 13 to 20 November, featuring over 120 films across PVR Lido, Veda Black Box, and Veda Kunba Theatre.
This year’s line-up includes acclaimed titles such as Aisha Can’t Fly Away, Caravan, Holy Rosita, Aurora, Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day, and The Second Coming, alongside Indian standouts like Kaisi Ye Paheli and Dream Factory.
The festival will also feature masterclasses with filmmakers Hansal Mehta, Shoojit Sircar, and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, along with industry panels on diversity, empathy, and the future of storytelling.
As the curtains rise on this cinematic celebration, YIFF 2025 promises to be a heartfelt homage to storytelling that continues to question, move, and inspire, just as Nishant did half a century ago.
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.
