Actor Nani's The Paradise crosses 138 crore rupees globally despite mixed reviews

Actor Nani's latest period action drama thriller The Paradise is heading towards the 150 crore rupee mark on its way through its early box office run, despite receiving largely negative reviews from critics and audiences.

Box Office Numbers

The film crossed 100 crore rupees at the worldwide box office within three days of release. After a strong opening day of 34.65 crore rupees, collections saw a 60 percent drop on the second day. The film collected 14.9 crore rupees on Friday, 15.25 crore rupees on Saturday, and 15.07 crore rupees on Sunday across 6,764 shows. Industry tracker Sacnilk reports that the total India gross stands at 109 crore rupees, with net collections at 92.1 crore rupees. Overseas gross collection has reached 29.25 crore rupees, bringing the total worldwide gross to 138.25 crore rupees.

Career Milestone

This performance pushes the film past the lifetime global collection of around 120 crore rupees for Nani's previous film, HIT: The Third Case. This makes The Paradise the highest-grossing film of Nani's career so far. Even so, it remains well behind Telugu cinema's biggest hit, the Chiranjeevi starrer Mana Shankara Varaprasad Garu, which earned 303.76 crore rupees worldwide. The Paradise is also competing against other current releases like Sidharth Malhotra's The Vvaan – Force of the Forrest, Vishal Chaturvedi's sleeper hit Hanuman Ansh, and Mirzapur: The Movie.

Theatre Occupancy

On day four, the film recorded an overall 45.12 percent occupancy in Telugu theaters. Morning shows stood at 35.08 percent, afternoon shows at 55.38 percent, evening shows at 52.54 percent, and late shows at 37.46 percent. Hyderabad registered the highest regional occupancy at 61.8 percent across 706 shows. Meanwhile, Hindi language occupancy reached 25.09 percent and Tamil language occupancy hit 28.35 percent.

Cast and Crew

Directed by Srikanth Odela, the film is set in 1980s Secunderabad and features Nani, Raghav Juyal, Sonali Kulkarni, and Kayadu Lohar in the cast. Reviews point out flaws in the screenplay and female character writing, while a review from Screen noted that the film met with a budget five times bigger than previous expectations and a script with little new to offer.

Actor's Response

Amid the mix of praise, negative reviews, and social media trolls, lead actor Nani posted on X to address the audience. He stated that he saw all reactions, enjoyed the hilarious trolls, felt heartwarmed by how the audience owned the film, and learned from the flaws pointed out by critics.

Context

High-budget action films in India often rely on strong star power to drive massive early box office collections during opening weekends, even when critical reception is mixed. Period dramas set in regional settings have gained significant traction among audiences, though word-of-mouth feedback and social media trends heavily influence how quickly their daily collections fluctuate after the initial release days.