The Paradise Teaser: Nani Rises in Fire, Release Moves to September 24

The teaser for The Paradise is out, and it leads with a promise the poster makes no attempt to soften: hell breaks loose, and a new reign begins in fire. Nani, blood-soaked and braided, sits atop a mound of bodies while an entire prison block looks down. Srikanth Odela is not easing anyone into this world.

Buried in the announcement is a schedule change. When the release date last moved, the team had locked August 21 to catch the Onam and Raksha Bandhan festival stretch. That date has now slipped again, with the teaser confirming September 24 in cinemas worldwide. Odela was candid about needing time when the film left its original March slot, and the extra month suggests he is still holding the film to that standard rather than a calendar.

What the teaser shows justifies the patience. Nani plays Jadal, a revolutionary rising out of a world built on oppression, and he is genuinely hard to recognise: the long bound braids from the earlier posters, a harder body, a voice pitched lower and angrier than anything he has done before. This is the actor’s second film with Odela after Dasara, the 2023 coal-belt drama that became his biggest hit at the time, and the pair seem intent on going further into that raw, physical register rather than retreating from it.

The action runs through axe fights, a jail brawl, sword combat and thousands marching in open rebellion, but the teaser’s most distinctive choice is quieter. A crow keeps recurring through the frames, a stand-in for people pushed to the margins for generations. It gives the carnage a spine; this is a film about who gets counted, dressed as an action epic.

Anirudh Ravichander’s score does a lot of the lifting, opening eerie and building into a full assault by the final stretch. Cinematographer Ch Sai and production designer Avinash Kolla, who built the film’s grim 1980s Secunderabad world, round out the technical team, with Navin Nooli editing.

Mohan Babu, Raghav Juyal, Kayadu Lohar, Sonali Kulkarni and Sampoornesh Babu complete the cast. Juyal, who won an IIFA for his villain turn in Kill, plays the antagonist Vikram Maalik. Sudhakar Cherukuri produces under SLV Cinemas, and the film opens September 24 in eight languages, including Tamil.