‘Dhurandhar’, directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Ranveer Singh, has finally debuted on the big screen today. After months of waiting, fans wasted no time rushing to theatres to catch the first day’s show and tweeting all about it. Amid all the hype and drama surrounding the film, trade reports state that the film may just open to an average response at the box office. However, this was just by taking into consideration the film’s advance bookings, which are estimated to be between Rs 15-20 crore net. Now, as per the latest reports online, the film seems to be picking up its pace at the box office, with trade reports showing a spike in numbers. As per Sacnilk, the early shows have already collected around Rs 66 lakh, with numbers expected to rise further during the day. As per the latest reports, the film has sold over 2.55 lakh tickets across 14,549 shows in 2D format, playing at the national theatre chains. The IMAX 2D formats playing at top theatre chains in the country have reported a collection of Rs 45.22 lakh for around 123 shows. The current data estimates that the film’s total advance collections now stand at an estimated Rs 9.23 crore from the sale of 2.62 lakh tickets sold across 14K shows in the country. It must be noted that these numbers are without blocked seats.

Taking into account the blocked seats, the total advance booking collection has risen to an estimated Rs 14 crore. State-wise, Maharashtra continues to lead with the highest collection of Rs 3.02 crore in advance earnings with blocked seats.

Delhi follows closely with Rs 2.98 crore. Karnataka and Gujarat follow with collections of Rs 1.41 crore and Rs 1.01 crore, respectively. Uttar Pradesh rounds up the top five with an advance collection of Rs 79.39 lakh. Trade projections suggest that ‘Dhurandhar’ is likely to open in the Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore range on Friday.

With a reported budget of Rs 250 crore, ‘Dhurandhar’, a large-scale action entertainer, will face significant challenges before achieving box office success. To attain these numbers, the film would rely heavily on word-of-mouth to drive weekend growth and keep the footfall consistent all through the working week.

Without a holiday to support it, the film will rely heavily on positive buzz and quality content to sustain its success at the box office. The current trend puts the film on par with the Dhanush and Kriti Sanon romantic drama, ‘Tere Ishk Mein’, which opened to similar numbers at the box office last week. However,

The film will have only 2 weeks to enjoy its run at the box office before it faces added competition at the ticket windows with the release of the Hollywood film ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’. The James Cameron film is already tracking a blockbuster opening in the country, considering that it is a part of a franchise release and already commands a huge fan base.

Market experts anticipate a period of sideways movement. (AI image)

Stock market today: Nifty50 and BSE Sensex, the Indian equity benchmark indices, opened flat in trade ahead of the RBI policy. While Nifty50 was above 26,000, BSE Sensex was around 85,250. At 9:18 AM, Nifty50 was trading at 26,037.90, up 4 points or 0.016%. BSE Sensex was at 85,243.19, down 22 points or 0.026%. Nifty managed a slight uptick on Thursday, breaking a four-day declining streak.

Though the upside remained limited due to continued foreign investor outflows and the rupee touching historic lows, Experts anticipate a period of sideways movement. Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, says, “Today the market focus will be on the monetary policy.

More important than the rate action, which is very tricky in the context of low inflation, high growth and a depreciating rupee, the market will be keen to know what the governor says about the emerging macro trends.

RBI’s action on the liquidity front will be keenly watched. If there is a rate cut, that will be the last cut in this rate-cutting cycle. A rate cut in the present context will be negative for banks since it will impact their NIM and ability to mobilise deposits. On the contrary, a rate cut will be positive for rate-sensitive products like autos and real estate. If there is no rate cut, banking stocks will rally.

The Rupee’s sharp recovery yesterday, rising to 89.97 from a low of 90.42, signals some level of stability in the currency market. The RBI governor’s views on the rupee today will significantly influence the near-term direction of the currency.”

US stocks finished largely flat on Thursday as investors assessed labour market reports and additional economic indicators, whilst market sentiment remained buoyed by expectations of a Federal Reserve rate reduction next week. Regional Asian shares declined in early deals following an uninspiring US session that impacted technology shares and bonds, as attention shifted to upcoming US inflation figures on Friday. WTI oil prices approached weekly gains of nearly 2% during early Friday trading.

The rise was supported by anticipated Federal Reserve interest rate reductions, heightening US-Venezuela tensions and halting peace negotiations in Moscow. Gold prices maintained stability on Friday, with increasing US Treasury yields counteracting benefits from a weakening dollar. Markets awaited US inflation data later in the day to understand the Federal Reserve’s policy direction before next week’s meeting.

Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth Rs 1,944 crore net on Thursday. Meanwhile, DIIs were net purchasers at Rs 3,661 crore. (Disclaimer: Recommendations and views on the stock market, other asset classes or personal finance management tips given by experts are their own. These opinions do not represent the views of The Times of India )

Cloudflare is down again, temporarily impacting hundreds of websites, including Canva, Zoom and Claude, among various others, which were unreachable on Friday (December 5).

Cloudflare CTO Dane Knecht confirmed the technical problems, saying that the company is working on a fix and the websites should soon be coming back online. He also shared the “root cause” of what led to the worldwide outage. The internet infrastructure provider deployed corrective measures.

Root Cause: Disabling logging features

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Knecht said, “We are aware of the issue impacting the availability of Cloudflare’s network. This was not an attack; the root cause was the disabling of certain logging features to help mitigate the issue.

this week’s React CVE.” “Will share full details in a blog post today. “Sites should be back online now, but I understand the frustration this causes and the work being done,” he added. He previously posted that the company is “closely tracking the React RSC vulnerability.” If you deploy on Cloudflare Workers, you are protected.

The Workers security model prevents this exploit at the runtime layer. For users that rely on WAF to protect self-hosted applications, more variants of this exploit are already surfacing and we are evaluating each one. As always, the best way to stay protected is to upgrade to the patched versions of React and Next.js as soon as possible.”

he added. Later, the company rolled out “additional mitigations” to protect more customers. Meanwhile, the company posted on its status page that a fix has been resolved, the services are back online, and the team is monitoring the situation. “Cloudflare services are currently operating normally.

We are no longer observing elevated errors or latency across the network. Our engineering teams continue to closely monitor the platform and perform a deeper investigation into the earlier disruption, but no configuration changes are being made at this time,” the company said (at the time of writing). “

At this point, it is considered safe to re-enable any Cloudflare services that were temporarily disabled during the incident. We will provide a final update once our investigation is complete,” the company added.

Second Cloudflare outage in a month

The current episode is the second such outage in a month’s time. Previously, on November 18, Cloudflare went down for hours, impacting major websites worldwide. At that time,

The CTO said, “A latent bug in a service underpinning our bot mitigation capability started to crash after a routine configuration change we made.

That cascaded into a broad degradation to our network and other services. This was not an attack.” Knecht stressed that the extent of the issue and the time required for resolution were “unacceptable”.

One of the biggest Chinese companies, Hikvision, is taking America’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to court. Chinese surveillance equipment manufacturer Hikvision announced that its US subsidiary has filed a legal challenge against a new FCC rule, escalating the ongoing dispute between Washington and Chinese technology companies over national security concerns. Hikvision stated it has filed a petition seeking judicial review of the FCC’s recent decision.

The company argues that the commission exceeded its statutory authority and “seeks to retroactively curtail lawful authorisations without a sufficient legal or evidentiary basis.” Hikvision, best known for its video surveillance and security camera systems, also sells network transmission equipment and accessories.

The legal action targets recent regulatory moves that allow US government agencies to tighten restrictions on telecommunications equipment manufactured by Chinese companies deemed to pose security risks.

“Our legal action seeks to protect our established market rights and the lawful interests of our customers and partners and to support a stable, transparent and predictable regulatory environment for all law-abiding businesses,” Hikvision said in a statement.

Dispute over “Covered List”

The dispute centres on the FCC’s “Covered List”, a designation for companies considered a threat to U.S. national security. The list effectively bars the FCC from authorising the import or sale of new equipment from named firms.

Hikvision, along with other major Chinese entities such as Huawei, ZTE, China Mobile, and China Telecom, has previously been placed on this list. This filing follows a series of regulatory crackdowns. In February, a U.S. appeals court rejected a separate bid by Hikvision to lift a 2022 FCC ban on approvals for its new video surveillance and telecommunications equipment. The regulatory pressure has extended beyond legal filings to the retail market. In October,

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr announced that major American retail websites had removed several million listings for prohibited Chinese electronics. These items, which included home security cameras and smartwatches from Hikvision, Huawei, ZTE, and Dahua Technology, were removed for being on the Covered List or lacking agency authorisation.

The lawsuit coincides with the ongoing expansion of American government restrictions on Chinese tech infrastructure. On October 15, the FCC announced it was moving to revoke the operating authorization of HKT.

a leading Hong Kong telecom carrier and subsidiary of PCCW, citing national security concerns. Additionally, the FCC has recently moved to withdraw recognition from equipment test labs owned or controlled by Chinese entities, further tightening the compliance bottleneck for Chinese manufacturers attempting to enter or remain in the US market.

Skip Bengaluru. Take a trip to Thailand instead. Or Vietnam. Or London. Singapore could also be a viable option. All at a much, much, much cheaper rate than Delhi to Bengaluru, Goa, Pune or Goa. But you cannot travel to Hyderabad, at least not on Friday.

because the tickets are sold out. Ironically, IndiGo flight tickets are available. The situation arose amid IndiGo’s massive operational chaos, which has led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and widespread distress for travellers at airports nationwide. On Friday, the airlines cancelled all departures from Delhi until midnight.

According to the DGCA, IndiGo acknowledged that it had severely miscalculated the number of pilots needed to operate its existing schedule under the new crew duty regulations.

The flight ticket fares on Friday for Bengaluru, Pune, Lucknow and Goa, which usually range from 10k to 15k, depending upon the demand and the festival factors, stood at an average of 25k to 30k.

Does a Delhi-Bengaluru ticket cost 70k?

A travel portal recently showed the fastest December 5 Delhi connection on Air India at around Rs 70,000 before it sold out; even after the price dipped to roughly Rs 32,000,

It remained far above the usual Rs 10,000–15,000 range for that sector. And it’s just a one-way fare. The trend across domestic routes showed that the quickest Delhi–Goa Air India option was priced above Rs 56,000, Delhi–Pune fares ranged between Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000, and Delhi–Lucknow tickets exceeded Rs 20,000 on Air.

India Express, with IndiGo selling seats between Rs 9,000 and Rs 17,000. In sharp contrast, international routes appeared far more affordable. Delhi–London fares on Air India began just above Rs 25,000, while Lufthansa and Swiss were priced below Rs 70,000.

Taking aim at the situation, Rocky Singh, a social media user, recommended travelling to Tokyo or New York instead of Bengaluru due to the current fare situation. Are you planning to travel to Bengaluru from Delhi using Air India?

“DON’T go to New York or London or Tokyo instead… It’s cheaper,” he said. From Delhi to Thailand, Thai Lion Air offered tickets under Rs 10,000, SpiceJet stayed below Rs 15,000, and Air India remained under Rs 25,000. Delhi–Vietnam fares were under Rs 15,000 on Air India and around Rs 25,000 on Thai AirAsia X. “If you get food poisoning, I will kill my grandmother,” said Vijaya Srivastava, a 25-year-old news writer.

when asked about going to Thailand, given the fares for the day. Even Delhi–Singapore flights were cheaper, with Thai Lion Air under Rs 20,000, Batik Air around Rs 20,000, and Air India at about Rs 30,000. A flyer expressed concern over the situation over the “Jodhpur to Bangalore Air India flight for 1 lakh rupees”. “This is so unfair of airlines taking advantage of the current situation,” Ankita said in a post on X.

Is IndiGo too nonchalant about it?

While the chaos has been caused by IndiGo itself, the flyers cited lax management mechanisms on the part of the airlines. “Flight radar was a more credible source to find the flight status than the website itself,” said a flyer from Delhi, who faced a 7-8 hour delay for the Bengaluru flight. Describing the 5am chaos,

He said that “every departure gate was crowded with angry passengers who had been waiting from 6 to 8 hours.” There’s no option to cancel, as the ticket fares are 3-4 times higher, so people just prefer to wait,” he said. Another flyer from Ranchi noted ill management of takeoffs and landings, saying, “Passengers had to wait for two hours inside the flight at Delhi airport as the bay area not empty.” As tempers flared and some travellers began confronting the crew, the pilot said, ‘We are just as helpless as you are.”

he said. “I can park the aircraft and offload only when we receive permission’,” the flyer recalled. “Indigo (@IndiGo6E)’s website has no mention whatever of the chaos and still allows you to book, even for tomorrow between Bengaluru and Hyderabad (which I picked as two of the worst-hit airports). Shouldn’t they be prioritising moving stranded passengers across the country?” a user named Rahul Siddharthan said on X. “And Indigo is still selling tickets with giant margins.

Hyd-Blore tickets normally cost Rs. 3000/- to Rs. 4000/- and are being sold on their app for Rs. 11,000/- plus. Even though they know their flights are being cancelled. This is called “Make Hay While the Sun Shines,” another user, posting the screenshot, said.

‘Monopoly’ concerns spark row

Leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi flagged the “govt’s monopoly model”, saying that “it’s ordinary Indians who pay the price – in delays, cancellations and helplessness.” He called for a “fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies.

“” IndiGo fiasco is the cost of this government’s monopoly model. Once again, it’s ordinary Indians who pay the price – in delays, cancellations and helplessness. India deserves fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies,” he said. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi took on the government, calling out to “shut down the civil aviation ministry”. “I have submitted a call for attention.

I was hoping that the civil aviation minister would provide information in Parliament yesterday, but unfortunately, that did not occur. He held a meeting late in the night and issued some directives.

But what is the point of directives if so many flights are still being cancelled? If you are not responsible for rising airfares and passenger grievances, then shut down the Civil Aviation Ministry,” she said.

Anoushka Shankar revealed that an Air India flight damaged her sitar, leaving her devastated. A new video shows it being repaired, and she thanked fans for their support. Air India apologised and offered compensation. Artists expressed heartbreak. The incident comes as Shankar celebrates multiple Grammy nominations for her latest project.

Grammy-nominated sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar has shared a hopeful update, revealing that her treasured sitar sustained damage on an Air India flight. Shankar admitted she was “devastated and truly disturbed” by the instrument’s handling after the incident quickly gained attention online. However, a new video she posted on Thursday suggests that her beloved sitar might still be saved.

Anoushka Shankar demonstrates the restoration of her sitar.

Sharing on Instagram, Anoushka posted a clip that captured her sitar being carefully restored. In addition to the video, Anoushka acknowledged the overwhelming support from her fans and expressed a cautious optimism for the swift restoration of her damaged instrument.

Anoushka Shankar thanks fans for their support

“First of all, THANK YOU everyone for your commiserations and support after my sitar suffered damage on a flight this week,” she wrote. I have an incredible update – which is that it MAY be saved! While the truly amazing Ajay Rikhiram @rikhiramoriginals works on repairing my precious instrument, I fervently hope it will be restored in time for my upcoming India Chapters tour.

Air India apologises to Anoushka Shankar

She also noted in her post that the viral online outrage prompted the airline to reach out to her. “ALSO, thanks to all your comments and shares, @airindia has reached out with apologies, an offer to compensate for the repairs and promises of a policy change after a full investigation into how this happened. I hope this can mark a change in the way musical instruments and all other precious goods are handled – giving them the care they deserve.”

Artists rally behind Anoushka Shankar

The first post she shared, showing the broken sitar, sparked a flood of reactions from fellow artists. Vishal Dadlani wrote, “God, that’s heartbreaking! I’m so sorry,” while Zakir Khan added, “This is extremely heartbreaking!” Papon, reflecting on the situation, commented, “Genuine care feels so rare these days… It’s as if the very act of caring has faded from our lives! This is so heartbreaking.”

Anoushka Shankar reaches career high amid setback

The incident emerges at a moment when Anoushka Shankar’s career is soaring. Her latest joint project with Alam Khan and Sarathy Korwar, titled ‘Chapter III: We Return to Light’, has earned several Grammy nods, including Best Global Music Album, in the lead-up to the 2026 awards scheduled for February 1 in Los Angeles.

NEW DELHI: Multiple videos from airports across the country on Friday captured scenes of massive chaos, with passengers lying on terminal floors.

crowding airline counters and demanding answers from officials as IndiGo’s operational crisis spiralled into one of the worst meltdowns India’s aviation sector has seen in years. Footage from Mumbai, Delhi,

Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports showed serpentine queues, exhausted travellers dozing on the ground and passengers pleading for information after flights were cancelled with little notice.

Sources said IndiGo cancelled more than 400 flights nationwide, while a large number of others were delayed, leaving thousands stranded.At Delhi airport, over 220 flights — including arrivals and departures — were cancelled through the day.

Bengaluru reported more than 100 cancellations, while Hyderabad saw over 90. Several other airports also reported heavy disruptions. Passengers said airline staff were unable to provide clarity on revised timings. “People are just lying everywhere. No one is telling us anything,” a flyer at Mumbai airport said in one of the viral videos. IndiGo has been grappling with severe operational disruptions triggered by cabin crew shortages and other internal issues.

sending its on-time performance crashing to an unprecedented 8.5% on Thursday, its lowest ever and the first time it has entered single digits. The crisis deepened further on Friday when the Delhi airport announced that all IndiGo domestic departures from IGI Airport were cancelled until 11.59 pm.

The collapse of India’s largest carrier—which operates over 2,200 flights daily and holds 64% of the domestic market—has set off a frantic surge in demand for tickets on other airlines, pushing airfares to staggering levels. One-way economy fares for Delhi–Mumbai for Sunday (Dec 7) were quoted between Rs 21,500 and Rs 39,000 on non-IndiGo airlines. Bengaluru–Kolkata was at Rs 20,000–23,000, while Chennai–Delhi touched Rs 21,000. Routes from smaller cities experienced even sharper spikes; for example, the Udaipur–Delhi fare ranged from Rs 15,300 to Rs 26,400.

–Mumbai surged to Rs 24,000–35,000. With IndiGo’s network crumbling, “a large segment of the travelling public is now chasing tickets of the remaining 34% market share carriers, so fares are skyrocketing.”

an industry official said. Thousands of passengers stuck in different cities said they had no choice but to buy exorbitantly priced tickets just to return home. The civil aviation ministry and the DGCA have been monitoring the crisis. On Thursday, IndiGo informed the regulator that it expected full operational stabilisation only by February 10, 2026. For now,

The videos flooding social media reflect a single message: India’s busiest airports struggled to cope as the country’s largest airline buckled under pressure.

Public Wi-Fi in cafés, airports, hotels, and stations feels like a convenient solution when you need fast internet away from home.

You connect your laptop in seconds and continue working, studying, or browsing without considering the risks. However, public Wi-Fi networks are among the most common entry points for cybercriminals.

Hackers often use open networks to intercept data, steal login credentials, plant malware, or gain remote access to devices. Many people assume cyberattacks only happen to businesses, but individuals using unsecured networks are often the easiest targets.

If you connect without protection, you could be exposing banking information, private messages, and personal files within minutes. Securing your laptop before using public Wi-Fi is essential if you want to avoid serious threats

.A peer-reviewed study on ResearchGate on wireless network vulnerability found that attackers can intercept unencrypted traffic and perform man-in-the-middle attacks on open Wi-Fi networks, placing users at high risk of credential theft and data compromise.

The researchers warn that users often underestimate the risk because attacks happen silently in the background, without any visible signs. Cybersecurity experts recommend strong encryption tools, controlled network settings, and cautious browsing habits to protect laptops when using public networks.

Why public Wi-Fi puts your laptop at risk

Most public Wi-Fi networks do not use strong encryption, and some have no security at all. This allows hackers to capture data transmitted across the network through methods such as packet sniffing or session hijacking.

Attackers may also create fake “evil twin” networks that look identical to legitimate Wi-Fi access points. Once connected, they can view browsing data, passwords and stored session cookies, allowing them to access email, banking or social media accounts.Additionally:

These threats occur quietly, long before victims realise anything is wrong.

How to secure your laptop from cyber attackers on public Wi-Fi

Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) A VPN encrypts traffic between your laptop and the internet, preventing attackers from intercepting data even on an insecure network.Only browse on HTTPS websites Look for the padlock symbol and https:// prefix. Encrypted sites protect login sessions and sensitive information.Disable auto-connect and file sharing Turn off automatic Wi-Fi connection.

Bluetooth sharing and network discovery. This prevents strangers from accessing files on your laptop.Turn on your firewall and update software Firewalls block unauthorised access attempts, and updates patch vulnerabilities that attackers exploit.Enable multi-factor authentication

If a password is stolen, MFA prevents attackers from logging in.Use strong, unique passwords and avoid autofill Password managers generate safer credentials without exposing stored data.

When you should avoid public Wi-Fi entirely

Even with precautions, some activities should never be done on public Wi-Fi:

Using mobile data or a personal hotspot is safer whenever handling sensitive information.

Additional best practices to secure your laptop on public Wi-Fi

Small habits significantly reduce the risk of cyberattacks.You should never connect your laptop to public Wi-Fi without proper safeguards. While open networks are convenient, they are also prime hunting grounds for cybercriminals.

If you must use them, enable a VPN, restrict access permissions, and browse only through encrypted channels. With careful practice, you can enjoy connectivity without allowing attackers to exploit your data.Also read| Is your Gmail hacked? Simple ways to check recent logins and secure your account