Nani: The Paradise Has Been the Most Challenging Film of My Career
Natural Star Nani is all set to arrive on the big screen with The Paradise, his upcoming pan-India action entertainer directed by Srikanth Odela. Produced by Sudhakar Cherukuri under the SLV Cinemas banner, the film is gearing up for a worldwide theatrical release on September 24.
With the songs, glimpse and teaser already creating a lot of buzz, expectations are high around the film. Speaking to the media ahead of the release, Nani opened up about his character Jadal, the film's intense action, the emotional connection with his mother, Srikanth Odela's treatment and the experience of making what he calls one of the toughest films of his career.
Jadal is unlike anything I have done before
Nani says Jadal is a character that took him completely out of his comfort zone. Unlike many of his earlier roles, which audiences could easily relate to, Jadal comes from a very different world.
“There is a certain madness to Jadal from the beginning. He is not someone who has grown up in a normal society. When audiences see him, there will be a shock value. I don't think we have seen a character like this in Telugu cinema before,” Nani said.
The actor's look, particularly the long dreadlocks, has already become one of the talking points around the movie. But the look was not created simply for style. Nani explained that every detail has a reason within the world of The Paradise.
The makeup itself took nearly two hours every day, and removing it took another 20 minutes. At times, the team even worked for nearly 36 hours continuously.
The action came with a lot of pain
The Paradise is easily one of Nani's most action-heavy films, but he says the action was never added just to make the movie look bigger.
“For me, action works when it comes from the story. In this film, every action sequence starts with an emotion. There is an emotion behind every punch,” he explained.
Nani performed many of the risky shots himself. He says he prefers doing his own action because he wants the final shot to genuinely feel like him on screen.
The shoot involved plenty of mud, rain, rope work and physically demanding sequences. His dreadlocks made things even more difficult, especially during rope-based action scenes.
Sometimes the dreadlocks would get caught in the ropes. The fight masters themselves wondered how I was managing it,” Nani recalled.
He considers The Paradise the film with the most challenging action blocks he has worked on so far.
Mother-son emotion is the heart of the film
For all its violence and action, Nani says the emotional core of The Paradise is the relationship between a mother and her son.
The film's glimpse and teaser have already given audiences a hint of this emotional track. According to Nani, the story begins with the mother and eventually comes back to that relationship.
The film starts with the mother emotion and ends with it. I feel that emotion will stay with the audience even after they leave the theatre. You may still be thinking about the film for three or four days,” he said.
Nani also believes family audiences will connect with the emotional portions of the movie, despite its intense action backdrop.
Srikanth Odela is all about the theatrical experience
Nani speaks very highly of director Srikanth Odela and his understanding of mass cinema.
According to Nani, Srikanth constantly thinks about how a scene will play in a theatre. Even while watching a shot on the monitor, the director thinks about the reaction it could get from the audience.
Srikanth has mass in his blood. Whenever he feels a particular scene will make the theatre erupt, he gets very excited. That quality is clearly visible in the film, Nani said.
The actor also revealed that there are a couple of very unconventional and radical episodes in the movie that he personally enjoyed a lot.
Anirudh's music adds another layer
Nani has worked with Anirudh Ravichander earlier in Jersey and Gang Leader. He feels their collaboration has reached another level with The Paradise.
According to him, Anirudh's background score plays an important role throughout the movie and keeps the momentum going from beginning to end.
Nani also praised the combination of Srikanth and Anirudh, saying their collaboration helped create songs such as ‘Aaya Sher’ and ‘Yessu Nagula’.
He also spoke about the upcoming song ‘Anjana Anjani’, revealing that it has been one of the songs he personally kept playing on loop even before the other songs came out.
Mohan Babu's character will surprise audiences
Mohan Babu plays a key negative role in The Paradise. Nani revealed that Srikanth had him in mind for the role right from the time he narrated the story.
Initially, Nani wasn't sure whether Mohan Babu would agree to play such a brutal character. But the veteran actor reportedly became extremely excited after hearing the story.
Nani says Mohan Babu was actually one of the first people to believe that The Paradise could become a big film.
There are certain things his character does in the film that will definitely shock the audience, Nani revealed.
A strong emotional role for the heroine
Nani says the heroine's character is also an important part of the story, particularly during the second half.
He also praised Sonali, who plays the mother, for the effort she put into the film. Like Nani, she had to work in difficult conditions involving rain and mud, but continued to give the film the time it required.
Nani feels her performance will be one of the highlights of the movie.
He also enjoyed working with Keerthy Suresh again for a song, calling it a reunion after their earlier collaboration.
A world set in the 1980s
The Paradise is set around 1984-85 and revolves around the Savari tribe living in a place called Paradise.
Nani explained that the tribe has little recognition or identity in society. Their struggle for recognition eventually leads to a rebellion.
While the place is fictional, he feels the world created by Srikanth has the kind of atmosphere that allows audiences to completely enter it.
You may know that the place is fictional, but once the film starts, you get into that world and start living there,” he said.
Nani on the pan-India release
With The Paradise releasing across multiple languages, Nani says the team has been extremely careful about the quality of the dubbed versions.
He feels audiences in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam have already shown a lot of affection towards the film, and delivering the film properly in every language is the least they can do in return.
This is the most I've worked for a film
Looking back at the experience, Nani says The Paradise has demanded more physical effort from him than any other film in his career.
The combination of the Jadal look, dreadlocks, action sequences, long shooting hours and physically demanding conditions made the film particularly challenging.
But he also feels that the effort was worth it.
With audiences already arriving with huge expectations, Nani and the entire team are now waiting to see how The Paradise connects with them on the big screen.
The film arrives worldwide on September 24, promising a mix of raw action, emotion, drama and a completely new world for Nani.
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