The Paradise, the Telugu action drama that reunites actor Nani with director Srikanth Odela, begins streaming on Netflix on Thursday, October 22, 2026. Netflix India announced the date on October 18 with the tagline “Welcome to Jadal zamana,” and the film will stream in five languages — Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam — according to reports by Sacnilk, The Daily Jagran and Pinkvilla. The Kannada and Malayalam versions are new for streaming: in theatres, the film played in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil.
The digital premiere lands exactly four weeks after the film opened in cinemas on September 24, a short theatrical window that has become increasingly common for big Indian releases. For viewers who skipped the theatrical run — or who want to revisit a film that sharply divided audiences — Thursday is the first chance to watch it at home. More of the week’s streaming arrivals are tracked on Previously’s browse pages and coming-soon guide.
A fight for recognition in 1980s Secunderabad
The film is set in 1980s Secunderabad, in a slum known as Paradise that is home to the Savaari, a marginalised nomadic community. As Sacnilk’s synopsis puts it, the community lacks legal recognition, voting rights and citizenship despite decades of Indian independence, and is treated by the surrounding system as a population of criminals rather than citizens. Nani plays Jadal, a young man from the community who rises, reluctantly at first, into leadership.
Pinkvilla’s account of the plot says Jadal is inspired by the courage of his mother, Sammakka, and challenges the powerful Malik family, setting off a struggle marked by conflict and sacrifice that ends with his people moving toward official recognition. The emotional spine of the film, multiple reports agree, is the mother-son relationship, which sits inside the larger story of a community demanding the basic rights it has been denied. The film carries an adult rating, and runs close to three hours — Sacnilk lists a runtime of 2 hours 54 minutes.
The Dasara reunion, and a villain making his Telugu debut
The Paradise is the second collaboration between Nani and Odela, who previously worked together on Dasara. That earlier film established the pairing’s signature: a raw, mass-action drama rooted in a specific place and community, with Nani in a rougher register than his earlier romantic and family roles. The new film is produced by Sudhakar Cherukuri under the Sri Lakshmi Venkateswara Cinemas banner, with music by Anirudh Ravichander — a score that Sacnilk’s review roundup singled out for praise, alongside Nani’s performance, even as the storytelling, pacing and violence drew mixed responses.
The antagonist is Raghav Juyal, making his Telugu film debut. Filmfare reported from the film’s press conference that Juyal plays the villain opposite Nani; other reports identify his character as Vikram Malik, a son of the Malik family’s patriarch, Shikanja Malik, played by Mohan Babu. Juyal, who broke through in Hindi cinema with Kill, told the press conference he was moved by the working culture on a Telugu set. “People celebrate and respect cinema so much over there,” he said, in remarks reported by Filmfare. “They respect each and every technician. Even the sound engineer; people know them by name.” He also thanked Nani directly: “You really changed my life, as an artiste and as a human being.”
The ensemble around the two men is deep: Kayadu Lohar, Mohan Babu, Sonali Kulkarni and Sampoornesh Babu all feature, along with Easwari Rao. It is the kind of cast that signals the scale the producers were aiming at — which is precisely where the film’s box-office story gets complicated.
Biggest grosser of Nani’s career — and still a disappointment
The headline number is real, and so is the caveat. According to Sacnilk figures cited by The Daily Jagran on October 20, The Paradise earned Rs 120.87 crore net in India, with a worldwide gross of Rs 173.24 crore — Rs 142.09 crore from India and Rs 31.15 crore from overseas. That worldwide total makes it the highest-grossing film of Nani’s career, ahead of HIT: The Third Case and Dasara. The run was heavily front-loaded: Sacnilk’s week-by-week table shows Rs 108.20 crore of the India net arriving in the first week alone, followed by Rs 10.83 crore in the second.
But The Daily Jagran’s report adds the other half of the story: the film was reportedly made on a budget of Rs 200 crore, and despite the record gross it was declared a commercial disappointment, because the gross never caught up with the cost of making and selling it. Trade estimates also vary by outlet — Pinkvilla’s final box-office report put the worldwide total lower, at Rs 159.50 crore, while still describing the film as a big disappointment relative to its budget. The honest summary is that The Paradise set a personal record for its star while losing the larger bet its producers placed on it.
What to know before you press play
For Netflix viewers, the practical details are simple. The film streams from October 22 in five languages, with the original Telugu version joined by Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam dubs. It is a long, violent, adult-rated action drama built around a social conflict rather than a conventional star vehicle, and the critical response was divided — praise for Nani’s committed performance and Anirudh Ravichander’s music, reservations about pacing and storytelling. Whether streaming audiences land warmer than theatrical ones is the open question of the week. Previously’s news front will track the film’s streaming performance as the first numbers arrive.
