The makers of director Prasanna Vinthanage's recently-released multilingual film Paradise took to their social media on September 20, to announce that the film would be premiering on Channel 4 as part of the South Asian Film Season, exclusively in the UK and Ireland, on September 25. The movie, starring Darshana Rajendran and Roshan Mathew in the lead roles, began streaming on OTT from July 26.The film's team made the announcement through their official social media handle with the caption, "Catch Paradise premiering on Channel 4 as part of the South Asian Film Season, exclusively in the UK and Ireland. Date: 25th September onwards! Curated by long standing season consultant and Indian cinema expert, Nasreen Kabir, this year’s lineup features films from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, spanning drama, thriller, documentary, and social realism. Dive into powerful stories tackling class, race, politics, and gender. Don’t miss it! (sic)"
Set During The 2022 Financial Crisis In Sri LankaWritten by Prasanna and Anushka Senanayake, the film is set during the 2022 Sri Lanka financial crisis during which inflation led to shortages in basic amenities resulting in public riots. The trailer of the film was released in March. In the trailer, Roshan (who plays a TV producer in the film) and Darshana's characters are seen travelling to Sri Lanka to celebrate their fifth-year wedding anniversary. However, the couple goes through some unfortunate unforeseen events due to the protests, which reveals cracks in their relationship and puts it to the test. The trailer promises a compelling fictional story that has been seamlessly stitched into quite-recent real-life events. Paradise Had A Festival PremiereThe film had its premiere on October 7, 2023 at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), where it was nominated and won the award in the Kim Jiseok Award category. Additionally, Paradise was also screened in the South Asia Premiere at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in the ICONS: SOUTH ASIA section.Roshan Mathew and Darshana Rajendran have previously worked together in films Aanum Pennum, and C U Soon. Besides Roshan and Darshana, Paradise also stars Shyam Fernando, Mahendra Perera, Sumith Ilango, and Azher Samsoodeen in key roles. Prasanna Vithanage is known for films like Death on a Full Moon Day (1997) and August Sun (2003). Renowned cinematographer and director Rajeev Ravi has done the cinematography for the film while A. Sreekar Prasad has handled the editing. Sound Design is by Tapas Nayak and music has been delivered by K. Paradise has been produced by Newton Films and presented by filmmaker Mani Ratnam under his Madras Talkies banner.
