The Srikanth Odela-directed film has crossed Rs 115 crore gross in two days and is showing little sign of slowing despite word-of-mouth that's split hard down the middle.
Rs 115 crore gross in two days and the numbers still aren't falling off a cliff. That's the story with The Paradise right now, Nani's big Telugu release from director Srikanth Odela, which according to 123telugu.com sold 252K tickets on BookMyShow on day three, a figure almost on par with what it did on day two.
That's the part that should worry rivals more than any single opening-day number. Films with genuinely split reactions usually bleed hard by the third day. This one hasn't, at least not on BookMyShow's counter.
And the reaction really has been split. 123telugu describes the talk around The Paradise as polarised, tilting mostly negative. Anyone who's spent ten minutes on film Twitter or the usual discussion boards this week has seen the same thing play out, arguments over the writing, the pacing, whether Odela's follow-up to his earlier work lives up to expectations, running alongside genuine excitement from Nani's base. It's the kind of film people are still arguing about after watching it, which, box office math aside, tends to keep a title in conversation longer than a movie everyone agrees on.
The producer backing all this is Sudhakar Cherukuri, and the film marks another collaboration in what's become a fairly high-stakes bet for Odela, who's directing. The team fronted up to the press the day before this latest set of numbers came in, talking through their experience making the film and fielding questions on how it's been received. Specifics of what was said in that interaction haven't been detailed beyond the fact that it happened.
What happens next is the real test. Day three holding close to day two is a good sign, not a guarantee. Telugu audiences have been fickle with divisive titles this year, films that open big and then correct sharply once the initial curiosity wears off. The Paradise's team will be watching the first Monday and the first full week far more closely than they were watching opening weekend, because that's usually where a mixed-reviews film either finds its floor or starts sliding.
There's also the matter of what this does for Nani's standing at the box office. Two-day gross figures north of Rs 115 crore put the film in serious territory regardless of what critics or online audiences think of the writing. Whether it ends up mattering for his career the way a cleaner critical reception might have is a different conversation, one that'll get clearer once the first-week tally is finalised.
For now, the ticket counters are doing the talking. BookMyShow's day three sales suggest The Paradise still has an audience willing to show up despite everything being said about it online, and that audience is the only number that actually decides how long this run lasts.
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