The Paradise clears premiere hurdle as advance sales cross Rs 45 crore

Nani's The Paradise is walking into release week with the kind of advance numbers the star has never seen before. The film has already sold around 900K tickets across BookMyShow and the District app a day out from release, and on BookMyShow alone it has gone past the advance figures of Guntur Kaaram and Peddi, both of which sat around 523K, by a wide margin.

The money side is just as loud. Premieres and Day 1 sales have taken the film past Rs 45 crore gross worldwide, including more than US$1.1 million in North America. Trade watchers reckon the figure could touch Rs 50 crore before the premiere shows even start rolling, and if the current pace holds, a worldwide opening north of Rs 75 crore gross is on the cards. That would make this the biggest opener of Nani's career.

The premieres themselves were briefly in question. The Telangana High Court has declined to stay the scheduled special screenings, clearing the way for them to go ahead on September 23 while a separate legal challenge continues. That petition questions the government's approval for higher ticket prices and the September 20 permission memo, and the court has asked the petitioner's counsel to serve case papers on the producer and the other parties involved.

The state had cleared a special screening on September 23 at 6:30 PM with tickets at Rs 500 including GST. Enhanced rates were also approved for the opening run through October 3, with different increases for single screens, multiplexes and special theatres. The earlier scrutiny centred on whether the price hike proposal was made public in time and whether the government order recorded enough reasons.

This is the costliest film Nani has made, and the release matches that scale with the highest screen and show count of his career in the Telugu states and overseas. Director Srikanth Odela has pitched it as an intense, raw action drama carrying strong emotional weight, with Anirudh Ravichander's songs and score already drawing a warm response.

Nani shares the screen with Kayadu Lohar, Raghav Juyal, Mohan Babu and Sonali Kulkarni, with Sudhakar Cherukuri producing. With a budget this size, the talk out of tonight's premieres will decide how far those opening numbers can stretch across the weekend.