The Paradise, Nani’s period action drama directed by Srikanth Odela, is no longer coming in March. The film has been pushed back nearly five months, with the team now confirming August 21 as the worldwide release date across eight languages.
The delay comes with a candid explanation from Odela. “I don’t want to rush,” the director said recently. “I need some time to deliver it.” For a filmmaker whose debut feature crossed Rs 121 crore at the worldwide box office, that kind of restraint says something. Odela first made his name with Dasara in 2023, a raw, violent village drama set in the Singareni coal mines of Telangana, with Nani in a role that was rougher and more physical than anything he’d done before. It worked. Dasara became Nani’s highest grosser at the time and announced Odela as a director with a distinctive visual sense and no interest in playing it safe.
The Paradise is their second film together, and it is clearly bigger in ambition. Set in 1980s Secunderabad, the story follows a marginalized tribe fighting discrimination and battling for citizenship under an unlikely leader. The new release-date poster leans into the period setting with a striking image: two long braids bound with red thread, dripping blood against a black background. The braids, known as Jedalu, appear to be a defining visual motif for Nani’s character.
What makes the August 21 date strategically interesting is its position in the calendar. The release sits at the start of a three-week festival window. Onam and Milad-un-Nabi fall in the opening week, Raksha Bandhan follows around the second weekend, and Janmashtami arrives in the third week. For a film releasing in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, English, and Spanish, that kind of extended holiday stretch can drive sustained footfalls well beyond the opening weekend.
Nani comes into The Paradise riding a remarkable four-film winning streak. Dasara, Hi Nanna, Saripodhaa Sanivaaram, and HIT: The 3rd Case have all performed, with Dasara and Saripodhaa Sanivaaram each crossing the Rs 100 crore mark globally. More importantly, the range across those four films, from a coal-belt action drama to a tender father-daughter story to a vigilante thriller to a forensic crime series, suggests an actor who is choosing projects carefully rather than repeating what worked last time.
The supporting cast adds to the intrigue. Raghav Juyal, who won an IIFA Award for his chilling villain turn in Kill, plays the antagonist. Originally known as a dancer and choreographer, Juyal reinvented himself as an actor with Kill and followed it up with a villainous role in Yudhra. His casting in a Telugu-origin pan-Indian film opposite Nani represents another step in that trajectory. Veteran actor Mohan Babu and Sampoornesh Babu complete the ensemble.
The team is currently filming one of the film’s major set pieces: Nani’s introduction song. Anirudh Ravichander, whose work on Jailer, Leo, and the Pushpa franchise has made him the most in-demand composer in South Indian cinema, has scored the track. Choreographer Sudhan Master is handling the sequence, which is being shot on a large set with hundreds of dancers.
Behind the camera, cinematographer Ch Sai, editor Navin Nooli, and production designer Avinash Kolla form the core technical team. The film is produced by Sudhakar Cherukuri under SLV Cinemas.