Hindi
Prabhu Solomon’s ‘Kayal’ to release in Dolby Atmos, launches its music in Chennai
MUMBAI: Dolby Laboratories, has announced that the much anticipated Indian movie, Kayal will be mixed and released in Dolby Atmos. The announcement was made at the occasion of the music launch of the much anticipated movie, Kayal at the Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai. Filmmakers use Dolby Atmos to place and move sounds anywhere in the movie theatre, including overhead, to make film audiences feel as if they are inside the move and not merely watching it.
Kayal is directed by Prabhu Solomon and produced by Madhan of Escape Artists Motion Pictures. The film features newcomers Chandran, Vincent and Anandhi in the lead roles, while D. Imman composes the film’s music.
The Dolby Atmos version of Kayal is being mixed by re-recording sound mixer Tapas Nayak at G Studio in Chennai.
At the audio launch, Prabhu Solomon, Director of Kayal said, “As a film maker, I have always strived to deliver the best possible cinematic entertainment experience for my audiences. The storyline of Kayal is based on a natural calamity and we needed something to make the experience realistic, immersing the audiences in the storyline. Dolby Atmos helped us create that holistic entertainment experience and I think that it is the most amazing cinema sound technology. I truly believe in the power of Dolby Atmos which immerses the viewer into the setting, which in return helped us in telling our story as realistically as possible.”
“With Dolby Atmos, the audiences are no longer watching a movie but experiencing it,” said Pankaj Kedia, Sr. Regional Director – India, South East Asia, ANZ, Dolby Laboratories. “We are confident that movie-goers will go back to cinemas for the extraordinary experience that Dolby Atmos delivers. Dolby Atmos creates a virtual reality of sound by precisely placing and moving sounds to make audiences feel as if they, too, are in the middle of the onscreen action. Kayal will be an extraordinary experience with Dolby Atmos.”
Dolby Atmos has quickly become the preferred choice for next-generation sound in the cinema, with major studios, award-winning filmmakers, and exhibitors from around the world embracing its approach. Unlike traditional channel-based sound systems like 5.1, 7.1, and 11.1, which require filmmakers to think about the number and location of speakers, Dolby Atmos allows them to simply designate where in the cinema space each sound should be placed or moved to make audiences experience the film as if they were within its world.
Also present at the event was the music director of the movie, D.Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran. While sharing his experience of mixing the movie in Dolby Atmos he said, “Creating music is always very exciting, and Dolby Atmos has added to the whole creative liberty for music composers to create the best sound experience. Music of Kayal has been designed by keeping Dolby Atmos in mind as it powerfully translates the unsaid emotions in the most realistic and immersive experience for our audiences.”
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.
