Nani says The Paradise was rushed after Rs 100 crore run

Nani has admitted that The Paradise was rushed through post-production, a rare admission for a star sitting on a record-breaking opening. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, the actor said the film’s edit and background score would have benefited from more time, but the team did not want to postpone the release a third time.

The Telugu action drama had already moved twice: first from March 26 to August 21, then to September 25. By the time the third date arrived, the makers felt the audience had waited long enough. Nani said the decision became a balancing act between finishing the film properly and honouring the excitement around it. “With the less post-production time, we rushed things a little bit,” he told the publication.

Why the admission matters

Usually, a Rs 100 crore milestone is enough to keep a star away from self-criticism. The Paradise opened at Rs 11.60 crore from 900 screens in India, the biggest debut of Nani’s 18-year career, and became his first film to cross Rs 100 crore at the domestic box office. Yet Nani is focusing on the polarised response, not just the numbers.

He believes the big-canvas scale of the film may have diluted what made director Srikanth Odela’s storytelling distinctive. The duo previously collaborated on Dasara, the 2023 action drama that earned Rs 121 crore worldwide on a reported Rs 65 crore budget. The Paradise was a far bigger swing, with an estimated budget of Rs 150-200 crore.

The two postponements had one silver lining: the new September date kept the film away from clashes with Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge and Yash’s Toxic: A Fairytale for Grownups, which had been crowding the calendar.

Story lost to set pieces

Set in a Secunderabad slum in the 1980s, The Paradise stars Nani as Sarakka, a tribal leader, with Raghav Juyal as the antagonist. Sonali Kulkarni, Mohan Babu and Easwari Rao also feature.

Nani said Odela’s ideas were strong, but as the span and expectations grew, attention moved from storytelling to set pieces. The result, he admitted, was that the emotional connectivity wasn’t there. Viewers also picked up on “little glitches” and moments that felt “a little jumpy,” he said.

Even so, Nani remains firmly in Odela’s corner. He described the director as one of the best talents in the industry and said he would still bet on him. For Nani, the bigger takeaway is to learn from what didn’t work rather than dwell on what another few weeks could have changed.

What makers can learn

The episode is a useful caution for any large Indian production with a hard release date. Here is what stands out:

• Lock the edit before promising a new date: Once a film has slipped twice, the third date should be set after the cut and score are in good shape.
• Don’t let scale swallow the story: Bigger budgets can shift focus to individual set pieces unless someone protects the narrative spine.
• Balance audience goodwill with quality: Excitement is valuable, but releasing an unfinished film can turn that goodwill into disappointment.

Would another delay have changed the film’s fate? Nani says that is something the team will never know. What he can control now is the learning: understand the mistakes and move forward.

Source: India Today